Village Capital’s Empowering Sustainable Entrepreneurship programme selected five ecosystem builders

Village Capital’s Empowering Sustainable Entrepreneurship in Africa program has chosen five exceptional ecosystem builders to move on to the next stage.

This Village Capital project, which is supported by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), aims to increase the influence of entrepreneur support organizations (ESOs) that promote climate change throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.

Building on the first phase’s success, which helped 14 ecosystem builders in five countries, the 2025 phase will enable them to conduct investment-readiness programs and provide direct funding to 30 startups with a climate focus that are creating significant solutions.

Ennovate Ventures (Tanzania), a venture factory that supports early-stage, innovative businesses; Emerge Livelihoods (Malawi), which cultivates a thriving ecosystem so that individuals and communities become self-reliant through an impact hub; Reach for Change Foundation (Ghana), a social enterprise that supports local social entrepreneurs; Catalyst Fund (Kenya), which operates a pre-seed fund and accelerator investing in tech startups that offer climate adaptation solutions to enhance the resilience of communities in Africa; and IdeiaLab (Maputo, Mozambique), which has a 14-year track record of fostering and enabling entrepreneurial potential.

“We are committed to reimagining capital deployment and building a more connected ecosystem where ESOs play a pivotal role in driving entrepreneurship and facilitating access to capital,” said Susan Nakami, region lead for Africa at Village Capital.

“Each organisation will receive up to US $260,000 to support their work, including strengthening their team capacity, organising workshops for climate-focused ventures, and providing re-grants to startups in their local markets. We are proud to walk alongside these organisations every step of the way, co-designing tailored accelerator programmes for startups in their markets and empowering them to deliver scalable solutions to climate challenges.”