Today's interview is with Maelis Carraro, Managing Partner, The Catalyst Fund.
What Is The Catalyst Fund?
What is the Catalyst Fund, and can you share more about your mission?
Maelis Carraro - Catalyst Fund is an early-stage venture capital fund and venture builder laser-focused on backing founders who are building solutions for a climate resilient future in Africa. We exist to discover, invest in, and empower game-changing entrepreneurs who are leveraging technology to build climate adaptation solutions, from climate insurance models to precision agriculture solutions for farmers, to sustainable cooling and waste management systems.
Our work doesn’t stop at funding—we roll up our sleeves and work alongside founders, providing hands-on and truly bespoke venture-building support that accelerates their growth and maximizes their impact.
In just 18 months, we have supported 22 startups across 8 African markets and 10 climate adaptation sectors, with 35% of startups led by women founders. We plan to make an additional 18 pre-seed investments over the next two years in category-leaders in climate innovation.
Investment Thesis
Could you elaborate on Catalyst Fund's investment thesis, particularly how it integrates climate adaptation and resilience in Africa?
Maelis Carraro - At the heart of our mission is the belief that African can be a leader in climate action and drive innovation for sustainable economic growth. While the continent contributes less than 4% of global emissions, it faces disproportionate climate shocks that threaten millions of lives and livelihoods. With over 60% of the continent’s workforce engaged in climate-sensitive sectors like agriculture, fisheries, and forestry, the increasing frequency of droughts, floods, and temperature extremes is not just an environmental issue—it’s an economic and social one. We see these challenges as a call to action.
At Catalyst Fund, we believe that climate adaptation is the next frontier of innovation in Africa. Our investment thesis is centered around three critical pillars:
1. Resilient Livelihoods
We invest in businesses that empower communities to adapt their income streams to new climate realities. This includes startups working on:
- Climate-smart agriculture: Providing farmers with climate-smart seeds, precision irrigation, and hyperlocal soil analytics and soil health monitoring.
- Alternative proteins & regenerative food systems: Reducing reliance on climate-vulnerable crops through innovations like insect protein
- Climate-adaptive fisheries & forestry: Sustainable aquaculture and land restoration efforts that ensure long-term ecological and economic resilience.
2. Climate-Smart Essential Services
We support startups that deliver critical services to help communities withstand climate shocks. These include:
- Water resilience technologies: Deploying decentralized water desalination and management systems to address growing water scarcity.
- Renewable energy solutions: Expanding access to off-grid solar powered assets and energy management solutions for rural and urban populations.
- Sustainable cooling and waste management: Tackling food loss and landfill emissions with innovative cold chain and circular economy models.
3. Fintech for Climate Resilience
We recognize that financial resilience is climate resilience. We invest in fintech solutions that help individuals and businesses absorb and recover from climate shocks, such as:
- Microinsurance & parametric insurance: Protecting smallholder farmers, fishers, and low-income households from climate-related losses.
- Climate data and analytics: Integrating climate risk and data into products and pricing across climate-vulnerable value chains.
- Carbon credit marketplaces: Supporting startups that help communities monetize sustainable practices.
We focus on pre-seed stage investments, where capital is scarce but impact potential is high. Each startup we back receives $200K in funding at pre-seed, split between direct investment and 400-500 hours of tailored venture-building support by a team of operators and ex-founders. Our goal is to de-risk climate tech innovation in Africa by ensuring that founders have both the financial resources and operational guidance needed to succeed. We also reserve significant dry powder (over 70%) for follow-on investments to back our winners at Seed and Series A.
Criteria For Investment
What key criteria does Catalyst Fund consider when selecting startups for investment?
Maelis Carraro - We look for startups that align with five key criteria:
1. Clear Climate Adaptation Impact - Every startup we back must have a direct and measurable impact on climate resilience. Whether it’s improving access to climate insurance, reducing food waste, or expanding clean energy access, we prioritize ventures that actively help communities adapt to climate change.
2. Scalable Business Model - We look for businesses with strong unit economics, replicable models, and the potential to expand across multiple African markets.
3. Founder-Market Fit - We believe that great companies are built by founders who deeply understand the problem they are solving. We prioritize entrepreneurs who have first-hand experience, whether through previous ventures, industry expertise, or lived experience in climate-vulnerable communities.
4. Tech-Enabled Innovation - While we don’t require startups to be purely tech-driven, we seek those that leverage technology to enhance efficiency, accessibility, and scalability. This could be AI-powered climate risk assessments, IoT-enabled irrigation, or digitally-enabled waste collection.
5. Long-Term Sustainability - We invest in businesses that are not just impactful but financially viable. Our ideal portfolio companies have a clear path to profitability, with sound revenue models and strong customer traction.
We also set to invest in at least 40% women-led ventures across the portfolio as women are strong agents of climate action in their communities.
Business Support
Beyond financial investment, what types of support does Catalyst Fund provide to its portfolio companies to enhance their growth and impact?
Maelis Carraro - We believe that early-stage startups need more than capital—they need deep, operational and strategic support. That’s why venture-building support is at the core of our model.
Each startup receives up to 500 hours of hands-on support over 5-7 months, covering six critical areas:
1. Product & Technology Development - Refining product-market fit through experiments, testing, and iteration, strengthening technology infrastructure, from mobile apps to backend systems and conducting UX/UI audits to enhance accessibility and customer engagement.
2. Market Expansion & Customer Acquisition - Crafting data-driven go-to-market strategies, establishing partnerships for scaling across multiple African markets and developing B2B and B2C sales playbooks.
3. Fundraising & Investor Relations - Pitch deck optimization and investment narrative coaching, access to a network of 250+ investors and hands-on support navigating due diligence and deal structuring.
4. Data & Impact - Designing impact measurement frameworks to track key impact metrics and implementing data dashboards for real-time business insights.
5. Governance, Leadership & Talent - Assisting with hiring key team members and leadership coaching, structuring advisory boards and governance best practices.
Unlike traditional accelerators, our venture-building support is fully integrated into our investment model—meaning we are deeply involved in our startups’ growth every step of the way.
Climate Impact
How does Catalyst Fund assess and measure the impact of its investments on climate adaptation and resilience?
Maelis Carraro - At Catalyst Fund, we believe that impact management isn’t just a risk management framework or exclusion list —it’s a core driver of our investment strategy. That’s why we’ve developed a robust climate impact measurement framework to ensure that every startup we back is delivering measurable, scalable resilience solutions.
Our framework tracks three key dimensions of climate impact:
- Resilience Outcome - The number of individuals gaining access to climate-adaptive products and services, such as drought-resistant seeds, agricultural insurance and savings, flood early-warning systems.
- Environmental Impact - The volume of CO₂ emissions avoided through sustainable solutions such as waste to value solutions, regenerative agriculture, and solar-powered infrastructure/assets
- Inclusion Outcomes: The degree to which solutions are accessible and affordable to lower-income, vulnerable groups and to women.
At portfolio level we track a few core metrics and then each individual startup tracks 3-4 business model specific metrics. To operationalize this impact tracking, we provide portfolio companies with support building a custom-built impact dashboard to collect and analyze real-time data and report transparently to investors.
The core metrics include: number of lives supported to adapt to climate change over 10 years, green jobs created, liters of water conserved, tonnes of carbon emissions mitigated/avoided, hectares of land sustainably managed, tonnes of waste collected.
Start-ups Supported
Can you share examples of start-ups you've invested in that have significantly advanced climate resilience in their communities?
Maelis Carraro - Our portfolio features startups tackling Africa’s climate challenges head-on, demonstrating that climate resilience is both necessary and investable:
- Mazao Hub (Kenya) – Empowering smallholder farmers with hyperlocal soil analytics, financial products and insights for more sustainable farming
- Bekia (Egypt) – Turning household waste into cash incentives, driving sustainable practices and dramatically reducing landfill pollution.
- Keep it Cool (Nigeria) – Delivering affordable, smart post-harvest cooling solutions to reduce post-harvest losses, cut food waste and enhance incomes.
- Zebra Crop Bank (Uganda) – Crop storage solutions and access to markets for farmers, boosting resilience and economic security.
Investment Strategy
How does Catalyst Fund plan to evolve its investment strategy in response to the growing impacts of climate change?
Maelis Carraro - As climate risks accelerate in severity and frequency, Catalyst Fund is scaling its investment strategy to meet the growing demand for climate resilience solutions. Our key focus areas include:
- Doubling-down into high-impact sectors for adaptation - We are increasingly looking for investments in climate-smart agriculture, cold chain logistics, water management and urban resilience.
- Boosting follow-on investments - We recognize that early-stage funding alone isn’t enough. That’s why we’re allocating capital for follow-on rounds, ensuring that our most promising startups can scale and sustain long-term impact. We aim to double down on high-performing companies in our portfolio, accelerating their path to Series A funding and beyond .
- Exploring innovative financial models - We are expanding into carbon credit markets, helping African startups access new revenue streams by monetizing their climate-positive actions
We’re committed to leading the next wave of climate adaptation finance in Africa, filling critical funding gaps, and unlocking new opportunities for scalable, high-impact solutions.
Advice For Start-Ups
What advice do you offer start-ups seeking investment, and how can they connect with Catalyst Fund?
Maelis Carraro - For founders looking to secure investment from Catalyst Fund, a clear and compelling case is key. Here’s what we look for:
- Showcase real climate impact – Your solution must directly enhance climate resilience in Africa
- Prove founder-market fit – We prioritize deeply committed entrepreneurs who understand their market, customer pain points, and the structural barriers to climate adaptation.
- Demonstrate traction – Have you secured pilot customers, revenue, partnerships, or early user validation?
- Clear business plan for scale – Do you have a clear business model, a well-defined go-to-market strategy (even if initial), and a scalable plan for impact and growth?.
Startups can connect and share a pitch with us via our website or follow us on Linkedin for the latest investment opportunities.
We’re on a mission to back Africa’s most transformative climate ventures—if that’s you, we’d love to hear your story!
Into The Future
Looking ahead, what critical challenges will the adaptation sector need to address?
Maelis Carraro - The climate adaptation sector must address critical challenges to scale sustainable solutions, including mobilizing more private capital to close the adaptation finance gap, where less than 10% of climate finance flows to adaptation, particularly in Africa. Data and risk assessment tools must improve through AI, satellite imagery, and standardized impact metrics because we can’t change what we don’t measure. Women’s leadership in climate adaptation must be strengthened, with equitable funding and decision-making roles. Lastly, scaling proven solutions across diverse markets requires regional adaptation hubs, regulatory alignment, and cross-sector collaboration.
Catalyst Fund remains committed to unlocking capital, scaling innovations, and driving systemic change to build a climate-resilient Africa
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