FASA, the multi-donor fund-of-funds targeting Africa’s underserved agricultural SMEs, has made its first investment, committing $5m to Catalyst Fund, a pan-African venture capital firm backing early-stage climate adaptation startups. The move marks the start of deployment for a vehicle that aims to unlock $1.7bn for agri-SMEs across the continent.
The commitment takes the form of junior equity, a structure designed to absorb early risk and make the round more attractive to other limited partners. According to FASA, its participation helped bring total committed capital for Catalyst Fund’s latest vehicle to $30m, with a final target understood to be $40m. The fund-of-funds is also providing a technical assistance package to strengthen Catalyst’s impact measurement and help its most promising agriculture portfolio companies scale.
FASA (Financing for Agri-SMEs in Africa) is managed by impact investment group I&P and backed by the governments of Norway, the United Kingdom (via the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office), South Korea (KOICA) and France, as well as the Small Foundation. It was established to address a persistent financing gap for small and growing agribusinesses, and operates with a pipeline of more than 20 fund managers across the continent.
Catalyst Fund, led by managing partners Maelis Carraro, Maxime Bayen, Olúwatóyìn Emmanuel-Olubake and Amolo Ngweno, has built a specialist venture-building model focused on pre-seed and seed-stage companies developing tech-enabled solutions for communities most exposed to climate shocks. Its investment strategy spans fintech for climate resilience, sustainable livelihoods and climate-smart essential services, with a geographic focus that includes Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, South Africa, Senegal and Uganda.
The firm already manages a portfolio of early-stage companies that includes Nigerian clean energy marketplace Earthbond, Malian agri-insurtech Oko Finance, and Tanzanian sustainable agriculture and waste management startups MazaoHub and Biobuu. Its first fund, Catalyst Fund Resilience I, closed in 2023 with around $10.4m, according to previous disclosures.
FASA’s commitment represents a significant institutional endorsement of Catalyst Fund’s specialist approach. The fund-of-funds said the manager stood out for its “proven venture-building model” and its focus on early-stage climate adaptation solutions in agriculture, which aligns with FASA’s core mission to back managers demonstrating high additionality in underserved markets.
The investment arrives as development finance institutions increase their support for early-stage climate funds on the continent. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) disclosed earlier that it intends to back Catalyst Fund with an equity investment of up to $6m for the same $40m vehicle. The IFC’s proposed commitment is structured in two parts: up to $4.5m from its own account, capped at 20% of total fund commitments, and a further $1.5m from the Women’s Entrepreneur Finance Initiative (We-Fi), housed at the World Bank Group. That We-Fi portion would sit in a “philanthropic tranche,” a concessional layer that acts as a first-loss buffer to attract private investors. The blended finance structure carries an estimated concessionality level of 0.7% of total project costs and includes explicit targets for backing women-owned and managed businesses.
Catalyst Impact Partners Corp, the fund’s manager, is a Delaware limited partnership but deploys capital exclusively into African companies. The manager participated in the IFC’s Start Up Catalyst Booster training programme in Oxford in May 2025, signalling a thorough vetting process before the DFI’s proposed investment.
With the $30m first close secured and the IFC’s package on the table, Catalyst Fund is well positioned to reach its final target. For FASA, the transaction is the first of what it expects to be a wave of commitments: the fund-of-funds has a pipeline of more than 20 funds and a mission to catalyse $1.7bn for Africa’s agri-SMEs, using both financial and technical tools to de-risk investments and crowd in commercial capital.