A global venture capital platform investing in startups positively impacting the world through technology. Cathay Innovation supports founders building transformative businesses across Europe, North America, Asia, Latin America and Africa. Its platform connects founders with investors and its ecosystem of leading Fortune500 corporations to help startups scale and transform industries with consumer to enterprise and AI solutions in commerce, fintech, digital health and mobility / energy.
A $148M USD multi-stage fund, established with Total Energy Ventures and Hubei High Technology Investment, investing in the Chinese energy sector. The Cathay Smart Energy Fund invests in early to growth-stage startups developing new technologies and business models in the Chinese energy sector. It backs startups with a particular focus on the internet of energy, distributed energy, renewables, storage, solutions for green vehicles and low-carbon technologies. The goal is to deepen collaboration across the industry, support innovative carbon neutral solutions and fight back against climate change.
Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund
Raised: €110 million
Asset class:Growth-Stage Venture Capital (Series B or C)
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Impact theme:Health, Education & Wellbeing
+11
Investment geographies:Africa
About the fund
The Cathay Africinvest Innovation Fund (CAIF) is the first Pan-African Venture Fund created with AfricInvest to connect the continent and the world’s leading innovation ecosystems. CAIF invests in early to growth-stage startups based in or focused on Africa that are ready to scale and make a significant impact with innovative and inclusive solutions. CAIF backs mission-driven teams with a particular focus on logistics, e-commerce, edtech, fintech, mobility, healthtech, energy and agtech.
To date, the fund has proved tremendous traction and scalability with portfolio companies expanding their global footprint to over 21 markets across the continent. The Fund’s portfolio companies have also aggregated significant impact at scale in recent years with over 136m Africans reached with inclusive and digital solutions–meaning $1 spent reaches more than one user on the continent. With its current portfolio, the Fund has created and sustained over 1,400 direct jobs, with women representing an average of 35% of the workforce. Deployed by a team of investment professionals located in the centers of VC innovation across Africa, the fund will continue to support African entrepreneurs to scale their innovative technologies across the continent and beyond, as well as support global entrepreneurs in their expansion into Africa.
The fund is backed by a diverse pool of globally renowned investors, development finance institutions, leading multinational corporations, and high-net-worth individuals across Europe, Africa and the Middle East such as EIB, AfricaGrow, FMO, Bpifrance, Triodos Investment Management, Proparco, SIFEM, BIO and more.
The Cathay InnoSquare Fund (Fund of Funds) invests in seed to early-stage entrepreneurial venture funds (typically on Fund I to III) across North America, Europe and Asia. They help emerging VC firms and their portfolio companies grow with access to our global platform – bridging innovation centers, investors, startups and Fortune 500 companies across five continents – and invaluable industry and local market expertise. They partner specifically with investors who share our vision in working together towards a more sustainable economy.
