A new $120 million impact investment fund focused on scaling climate-health technologies in emerging markets has been launched by the Global Innovation Fund (GIF), in partnership with global health non-profit PATH. Dubbed the Thrive Fund, the initiative is the latest in a series of blended finance vehicles targeting the intersection of climate resilience and public health — with a strong focus on African and Asian early-stage startups.
The fund is designed to back 50 high-potential ventures with patient capital and technical assistance, with the goal of delivering climate-health innovations to 100 million people by 2030. It intends to mobilise ten times its capital in follow-on private sector investment and has already developed a pipeline of 100 potential investment opportunities.
“We are addressing a major market failure,” said Lily Steele, Investment Director at GIF. “There is a clear need for catalytic capital to de-risk and deploy proven technologies in fragile health systems. Thrive aims to do just that.”
While numerous startups have developed solutions for climate-related health challenges — such as heat stress mitigation, medical cold chains, and pollution monitoring — few are able to scale due to capital constraints, policy bottlenecks, and fragmented ecosystems.
Thrive Fund focuses on these “growth-ready” innovations, providing both financing and hands-on support to navigate regulatory systems, enter new markets, and integrate with public and private healthcare delivery mechanisms.
GIF, a non-profit investment vehicle known for backing African startups like Paga, WhereIsMyTransport, PayGo Energy, and Mr Green Africa, sees Thrive as the natural evolution of its impact investment model. Its partner, PATH, brings extensive technical expertise from scaling over 120 health technologies across 70 countries.
The Thrive Fund emerges against a backdrop of rising climate-related health risks. By 2050, climate change is projected to cause 15 million excess deaths and a loss of two billion healthy life years — with over 80% of the impact concentrated in low- and middle-income countries in Africa and Asia. These regions face mounting pressure on health systems from extreme weather, disrupted supply chains, blackouts, and workforce shortages.
“Climate and health are deeply interconnected,” said Nikolaj Gilbert, President and CEO of PATH. “We need new investment models that can scale solutions to keep people safe and systems functioning. Thrive is that model.”
A Blended Finance Approach
What sets Thrive apart is its blended finance architecture — combining equity or quasi-equity investments with catalytic grants for technical assistance. This approach is meant to address both the capital-intensive nature of scaling health-tech and the operational challenges of entering fragmented and underfunded health markets.
The fund will also support ecosystem development, from policy engagement and evidence generation to cross-sector convening, in order to accelerate market adoption.
The Thrive Fund also marks a return to form for GIF, which between 2017 and 2022 was among the most active global impact investors in African early-stage startups. With Thrive Fund, GIF extends that commitment to African and Asian climate-health solutions, a category it views as both commercially viable and socially urgent.
What Comes Next
Over the next five years, Thrive plans to:
- Invest in 50 early- and growth-stage climate-health startups
- Support deployment across Africa and Asia through public health systems and private markets.
- Mobilise at least $1.2 billion in follow-on capital.
- Influence policy and system change through evidence and collaboration.
With an ambitious pipeline and a collaborative ethos, Thrive could become one of the most influential climate-tech vehicles in the Global South — especially if it succeeds in turning promising climate-health startups into scalable, sustainable solutions.