Greetings Agents of Impact!
In this month’s Africa newsletter:
- Kenya Climate Ventures looks to build an adaptation ecosystem
- Low-cost diagnostics for health clinics
- Funding for Ghana’s impact enterprises
- Tapping the African diaspora for climate financing
Featured: Startup Ecosystem
Kenya Climate Ventures pivots again to back very early startups in Africa. Talk about adaptation. Kenya Climate Ventures, among the earliest dedicated climate tech funds in Africa, has pivoted before, and it’s pivoting again. The firm, which began as Kenya’s hub in a network of World Bank-funded climate innovation centers, made the transition to a for-profit fund manager in 2016. Since then, it has facilitated more than $20 million in investments to 20 climate tech startups in the country, addressing water challenges, climate resilient agriculture, circularity and waste management, renewable energy and sustainable forestry. But it has yet to reach a final close for its targeted $25 million fund. It’s now building out a new strategy around funding mechanisms and partnerships that crowd in more players to deliver more and better climate adaptation finance. “We are looking to be at the center of an integrated model that provides the appropriate pipeline, brings in the appropriate investment and technical support, to deliver a creative ecosystem in a more effective and efficient manner,” KCV’s Victor Ndiege tells ImpactAlpha.
- Revolving fund. At its first Adaptation Investment Summit for Africa in Nairobi this month, Kenya Climate Ventures launched its new Asili Fund to cut tiny checks of $10,000 to $20,000 for very early-stage companies, then redeploy the capital into new startups as it exits. The fund is being piloted with $100,000, jointly funded by Kenya Climate Ventures and CARE Denmark. “These are the ticket sizes that are very rarely available under very favorable, concessional terms and favorable repayment schedules,” CARE’s Helena Lassen told ImpactAlpha. Kenya Climate Ventures’ goal for Asili is to raise $10 million over the next three years. The firm is also running the Kenya Uganda Adaptation Accelerator, a $5 million, four-year initiative, to make 100 climate adaptation businesses bankable. At least 50% of the cohort will be women-led businesses. The entrepreneurs will receive up to $50,000 in performance-based grants to meet adaptation targets.
- Evolving model. Kenya Climate Ventures evolved from the World Bank’s Climate Innovation Center initiative, whose goal was to nurture regional green businesses and tech to foster climate resilience in emerging markets. The program launched seven innovation hubs, starting with Kenya in 2012. Each hub received five- to 10-year operational grants, after which they were to become self-sustaining accelerators and funders for local climate startups. Kenya Climate Ventures is the program’s lone success; the rest have been absorbed into government agencies, universities or tech hubs, or shuttered. “The fact that we did not close at the end of the program seven years ago,” says Ndiege, shows “it is possible to transform into a vehicle that can service the market based on these lessons that we’ve learned.”
- Keep reading, “Kenya Climate Ventures pivots – again – to back very early startups in Africa,” by Lucy Ngige.
Dealflow: Investing in Health
Reme-D nabs $1.5 million for faster diagnostics for underserved populations. Egypt-based Reme-D makes diagnostic kits for human and animal diseases that are designed for healthcare providers in low-resourced settings. The tests are fast, low-cost and do not require refrigeration. The female-led startup raised approximately $1.5 million in a pre-Series A round led by Anara Impact Capital, a Middle East and Africa-focused fund that spun out of UK-based Alfanar Venture Philanthropy last year. Global Innovation Fund and Cape Town-based Africa Health Ventures also participated. “Success means that patients in Africa and the Global South are no longer blocked from life-altering disease diagnosis by cost or availability” of advanced testing, said Reme-D’s Salma Tammam. Reme-D is also a portfolio company of Tunisia-based Open Startup, an accelerator-turned-investor backing African deeptech startups.
- Diagnostics gap. Diagnostics are the frontline of outbreak prevention. But about half of the approved diagnostic tests for some of the most epidemic-prone diseases, such as ebola and cholera, require clinical laboratory equipment that many primary and community care facilities do not have. Reme-D has commercialized 30 diagnostic products since 2023 with a focus on tuberculosis, HIV, hepatitis, and human papillomavirus, or HPV. The company employs nearly 50 scientists, half of whom are women. The company is developing genetic testing and cancer detection kits.
Village Capital deploys $500,000 to three Ghanaian impact startups. The accelerator and impact investor made the investments through its $4 million Africa Ecosystem Catalysts Facility, a pilot fund backed by FMO and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. The fund invests in early-stage companies advancing economic mobility and climate resilience, with a focus on Ghana. It relies on local ecosystem partners to source, vet and help select investments while tailoring financing to each business. The latest investments went to Built Financial Technologies, which provides bookkeeping, payroll, invoicing and loans for small businesses in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria; GrowForMe, a Google- and UN-backed company that connects smallholder farmers with capital from retail investors, institutions and the Ghanaian diaspora; and SAYeTECH, which manufactures post-harvest equipment.
- Tailored capital. Village Capital has made five investments in Ghana since it launched the Africa Ecosystem Catalysts facility in 2025. VilCap plans to expand the model to Nigeria and Tanzania. The fund invests $75,000 to $500,000 in locally-led companies with early revenue and less than $2 million raised. Its first two investments, announced in May, provided a combined $350,000 to healthcare startup Rivia Clinics, and logistics company VDL Fulfilment.
- More.
Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:
- The Botswana Tech Fund reached a $6.7 million first close anchored by Pula Investments and the family office of Stephen Lansdown, founder of British retail investment site Hargreaves Lansdown. The fund invests in businesses in Southern Africa and will allocate a portion of its returns to the Tuli Conservation Trust for wildlife protection. (BTF)
- AfricaGoGreen Fund provided $10.7 million in debt to BioLite to sell clean cookstoves in Zambia. Switzerland-based KliK Foundation will purchase carbon credits generated from the project. (AGF)
- Zazu, a South African fintech company that provides invoicing, bookkeeping and other services to small businesses, secured seed funding from Launch Africa Ventures. (African Startups)
- Check out more than a dozen more recent impact deals in Africa.
Signals: Climate Finance
Global South diaspora finances the climate transition ‘back home.’ The biggest source of development capital in the Global South isn’t foreign governments. Or multilateral assistance. Or commercial lenders. Its remittances. More than $900 billion flows from diaspora communities to friends, families and businesses living in other countries. Governments, financial institutions and local communities are keying in on the opportunity to leverage those capital flows as a source of climate adaptation and resilience finance, writes ImpactAlpha contributing editor Marilyn Waite. Africa, which receives more than $95 billion in annual remittances, is experimenting with models for systematically tapping its far-flung expats for development and climate finance. In Zimbabwe, Senegal and Kenya in particular, “asset managers, banks, credit unions or fintech providers are stepping in to improve the transfer process and repatriate earnings with funders’ preferences in mind,” Waite explains.
- Models from Africa. Zimbabwe’s diaspora of roughly five million people sends billions of dollars each year back into the Zimbabwean economy. This year, the Diaspora Credit Union is relaunching to enable them to more easily invest in the country. The credit union is developing a product that will support clean energy access and resilience via solar loans for households and small businesses (see, “Is Zimbabwe becoming a new breadbasket of climate opportunities?“). In Kenya, savings and credit cooperative organizations, or SACCOs, are creating climate-focused savings products that enable members to earn interest while backing climate action in the country. K-Unity, KUDS, Stima, Unaitas and Qona have all launched climate savings products, supported by their combined $19.4 million in diaspora deposits. The opportunity for such products is at least $300 million across the more than 170 SACCOs in Kenya, Waite says.
- Seeds of growth. In Senegal, a “diaspora bond” floated last year raised 450 billion West African francs (more than $780 million) from the overseas community as well as domestic investors to support the government’s aim of reducing its debt-to-GDP ratio. In Zambia, the Zambia Business Angels Network and Africa Equity Group are tapping that country’s diaspora to support local small businesses. These efforts may not yet intentionally channel diaspora capital to climate causes, but they are building the infrastructure that could make it possible. The word diaspora is derived from the Greek words sperein, which means “to sow”, and dia, which means “to move through”, Waite notes. “Diasporic communities are providing the seeds to grow economies across the globe. This overlooked channel of private capital is just waiting to seed climate action as well.”
- Keep reading, “Global South diaspora finances the climate transition ‘back home’,” by Marilyn Waite.
Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent
Djalal Khimdjee, formerly with Proparco, will take the helm of Africa50’s Principal Investment Fund in August… African Export-Import Bank names One Street Studios as co-general partner of the $1 billion Africa Film Fund… Charm Impact is recruiting an investment officer, with a preference for Nairobi-based candidates… OceanHub Africa is hiring a development finance lead, based in Cape Town.
The Development Bank of Southern Africa is hiring an infrastructure finance specialist in the Johannesburg area… Business Partners Limited is looking for an ESG and impact investing manager in Johannesburg… The International Water Management Institute seeks a remote consultant for investment readiness in Zambia and Malawi.
The UN Capital Development Fund has an opening for an energy investment program manager in Kinshasa… The International Finance Corp. is hiring an operations officer for sustainable infrastructure advisory in Dakar… The World Bank launched a $163 million grant program to support agriculture, food security and climate resilience projects in developing countries.
👉 View (or post) impact investing jobs on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.
Thank you for your impact!
– July 23, 2026
