The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is backing Catalyst Fund with an equity investment of up to $6m for its new $40m vehicle, aimed at investing in pre-seed and seed-stage climate technology companies across Africa.
The investment signals a growing commitment from major development finance institutions (DFIs) to support specialist, early-stage fund managers focused on solving the continent’s most pressing climate-related challenges.
The new fund, managed by Catalyst Impact Partners Corp, will target startups in three core areas: fintech for climate resilience, sustainable livelihoods, and climate-smart essential services. Its geographic focus will span key and emerging tech hubs, including Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, South Africa, Senegal, and Uganda, among others.
The Deal Structure
The IFC’s commitment is structured in two parts. The primary investment is an equity injection of up to $4.5m from the IFC’s own account, which will not exceed 20% of the fund’s total commitments.
A second, crucial component is a $1.5m investment from the Women’s Entrepreneur Finance Initiative (We-Fi), a partnership housed at the World Bank Group. This portion will be placed in a “philanthropic tranche,” a layer of capital designed to absorb initial risk and make the fund more attractive to other private investors.
This “blended finance” approach is central to the deal. According to IFC disclosures, the structure is necessary to mitigate the “inherent risks of investing in early stage companies in the region.” The We-Fi capital acts as a de-risking mechanism, which is expected to encourage further private investment into the fund.
The We-Fi investment also includes a specific mandate to accelerate the fund’s support for women-owned and managed companies, setting targets to ensure they are a dedicated focus. The level of concessionality, or subsidy, provided by the blended finance portion is estimated to be 0.7% of the total $40m project cost.
A Focus on Climate Resilience
Catalyst Fund’s investment thesis is centred on backing companies building solutions for Africans most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The fund will write cheques for pre-seed and seed-stage companies developing tech-enabled products and services.
The manager has already built a portfolio in this domain. Its current investments include:
- Earthbond (Nigeria): A marketplace for clean energy solutions.
- Oko Finance (Mali): An agri-insurtech startup providing crop insurance to smallholder farmers.
- MazaoHub & Biobuu (Tanzania): Companies working in sustainable agriculture and waste management.
The fund is legally established as a limited partnership in Delaware but will exclusively deploy capital into companies operating across Africa.
Catalyst Impact Partners Corp is not new to the African tech ecosystem. Its first fund Catalyst Fund Resilience I established in 2023 raised approximately $10.4m, according to the firm’s latest disclosures.
The fund manager also participated in the IFC’s Start Up Catalyst Booster training program in Oxford in May 2025, indicating an established relationship and vetting process with the DFI.
The IFC’s support through both direct investment and the We-Fi facility provides a significant stamp of approval for Catalyst Fund, potentially easing its path to reaching its final $40m target. The move underscores a broader strategy by DFIs to back emerging fund managers who possess the local expertise to identify and nurture high-impact startups from their earliest stages.