Venture Finance Portfolio

The FSD Africa and FSDAi venture finance portfolio consists of numerous funds and platforms targeting climate action, gender-lens investing, and financial inclusion across the African continent. Key climate-focused initiatives include Africa Climate Ventures, which aims to reduce 100 million tonnes of carbon emissions by 2030, and the Catalyst Fund, which targets 40 pre-seed climate resilience start-ups. Gender-focused funds such as Aruwa Capital and RiTA Fund I specifically address capital imbalances for female-led businesses. The portfolio also includes sector-specific vehicles for fintech (First Circle Capital), insurance (Inclusive Insurance Investment Fund), and renewable energy (Nithio, Spark Energy), utilizing a mix of equity, grants, and debt to catalyze private investment and drive sustainable economic growth.

• Africa Climate Ventures (ACV) is an investment platform aiming to support up to 15 high-growth ventures and targets the reduction of 100 million tonnes of carbon emissions by 2030.
• The Catalyst Fund focuses on pre-seed climate resilience start-ups across Africa, with a goal to invest in 40 such ventures and mobilize US$ 100M from public and private sectors.
• Aruwa Capital, a female-founded firm in Lagos, focuses on gender imbalance in capital allocation; as of December 2024, it has supported 205,366 jobs and SMEs that generated US$180 million in total revenue.
• Nithio uses an AI-enabled energy financing platform to drive capital into renewable energy, reporting 15M+ Metric tons of CO2 emissions avoided as of December 2024.
• Persistent focuses on the energy transition and has avoided over 2 million tonnes of CO2e and installed over 100MWp of renewable energy capacity as of December 2024.
• The Inclusive Insurance Investment Fund (3IF) targets the African insurance ecosystem with a goal of issuing 2,000,000 new insurance policies and improving the financial resilience of 1,200,000 people and SMEs.
• Spark Energy Services targets small-scale renewable energy projects and energy efficiency in Sub-Saharan Africa, aiming to reduce 737 million tonnes of GHG emissions by 2034.
• TECA (Triggering Exponential Climate Action) aims to launch 100 climate ventures by 2026, with 60 specifically in Africa, to prove a model for finance and technical assistance.

APA

FSD Africa (n.d.). Venture Finance Portfolio. https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/FSD_ESFC25_Venture-Finance-Portfolio-Summary-FA.pdf

Chicago

FSD Africa. Venture Finance Portfolio. n.d. https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/FSD_ESFC25_Venture-Finance-Portfolio-Summary-FA.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=FSD Africa |title=Venture Finance Portfolio |url=https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/FSD_ESFC25_Venture-Finance-Portfolio-Summary-FA.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{fsdafricandventure, author = {{FSD Africa}}, title = {{Venture Finance Portfolio}}, institution = {FSD Africa}, url = {https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/FSD_ESFC25_Venture-Finance-Portfolio-Summary-FA.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }