Afrigather 
Satgana, a European enterprise capital (VC) agency headquartered in Luxembourg, has closed a €30 million fund to fund startups that deal with local weather change issues in Africa. The fund will achieve this by investing as much as €500K within the pre-seed and seed phases of startups throughout Europe and Africa.
The VC will leverage the community of its crew and a few of its traders to assist founders with direct operational and strategic help, along with funding, on points like influence administration, expertise growth, technique, hiring, and fundraising. Satgana will think about meals, agriculture, vitality, mobility, business, buildings, carbon elimination, and the round economic system as it really works to decarbonize all areas of the economic system.
The fund has invested in 3 local weather tech startups: Orbio Earth, a German startup constructing methane intelligence software program to assist vitality suppliers monitor and scale back methane emissions with using satellites; Mazi Mobility, a Kenyan startup constructing a community of electrical motorbikes and battery-swapping infrastructure in East Africa; and Yeasty, a French startup constructing another protein leveraging beer yeast with a round mannequin.
Satgana’s method to funding local weather tech startups is far wanted throughout the continent, as most African international locations are ill-prepared for disasters brought on by local weather change. Most noticeably, Nigeria, second solely to South Africa as the top country for startups in Africa, has been affected by floods, which have left over a million people displaced.
In July, greater than 18.5 million folks in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Djibouti confronted a humanitarian disaster as droughts ravaged the Horn of Africa. Seven of the ten international locations which might be most weak to local weather change are in Africa.
To higher perceive how Satgana plans to assist mitigate local weather change in Africa, TechCabal spoke to Romain Diaz, Satgana’s CEO, about how the fund will spend money on startups in Africa.
Regardless of having a decrease contribution to local weather change than different continents, Africa is probably the most weak. How will Satgana’s method assist Africa’s vulnerability?
Africa is probably the most weak continent to local weather change, placing its growth at systemic danger, regardless of producing lower than 3% of the planet-warming greenhouse gases. The continent is residence to 7 of the ten nations which might be most in danger from local weather change, together with infrastructure threats, meals insecurity, floods, droughts, and public well being points.
Local weather disasters brought about greater than 2.6 million folks to flee their houses in Sub-Saharan Africa alone in 2021, and the IPCC tasks that quantity will rise to 700 million by 2030. Which means not solely do we have to be certain that Africa is on a trajectory of inexperienced development, however we should additionally discover options linked to local weather resilience.
Solely 7% of climate-related investments are made immediately, though many alternative options have to be developed and applied. Some examples of such fashions that we’re scouting at Satgana embody regenerative agriculture, climate-resilient crops, early warning programs for excessive climate occasions, coastal obstacles, water desalinisation; hydroponic agriculture, improved cooling and insulation programs, and modular housing from waste supplies. It’s price noting that a few of these fashions are on the intersection of local weather change mitigation and adaptation, together with biodiversity and social co-benefits.
Early-stage startups normally take some time earlier than making a substantial influence. For such a prevalent difficulty, why is Satgana’s concentrate on early-stage startups?
In essence, startups have restricted influence of their early days, which might be each detrimental and optimistic. The startups that succeed, although, are those that may truly have an effect by growing much-needed applied sciences or utilizing those who exist already in contemporary methods, in new markets, and for contemporary functions. Startups by themselves received’t be sufficient for our economies to scale back emissions by half by 2030 and attain internet zero by 2050 as a result of we’d like quite a lot of gamers to contribute.
Fortunately, the local weather agenda is now entrance and centre, and we sit up for the outcomes of COP 27, the place, by the best way, Satgana will participate in a panel dialogue to debate the position of enterprise capital in preventing local weather change.
Different environmental components like biodiversity, which is at present underappreciated regardless of being equally essential to combating local weather change, shouldn’t be disregarded. Startups addressing these challenges are additionally urgently required to revive planetary well being.
Moreover funding, early-stage startups on the continent need assistance accessing a help community. What kind of help will Satgana supply?
Funding is an enormous half. There’s a scarcity of funding (trillions of {dollars}) that’ll assist get us to internet zero, and a part of it wants to come back from the financing of startups. Local weather investments in Africa characterize solely a tiny fraction of different verticals, akin to fintech, which have taken the lion’s share of VC investments on the continent to this point. We’re satisfied that that is poised to vary because the local weather agenda turns into entrance and centre for all nations and companies.
Nonetheless, as you rightly level out, startups additionally want extra than simply capital, and it’s exactly round this hole identification that we now have constructed our worth proposition at Satgana. As soon as we make investments, we help startups with data, networks, and hands-on help, primarily based on the wants of every startup.
Sometimes, this may take the type of help on expertise growth, influence administration, advertising, monetary modelling, recruitment (notably round variety and inclusion hiring), and reliance on elevating their follow-on spherical of financing.
In varied cases, we now have received aggressive offers as a result of founders wish to work with us, really feel value-aligned, and know that we’ll turn out to be true companions. We give them as a lot firepower as we are able to for them to succeed.
What kind of influence does the fund wish to have on the continent?
The aim of this 10-year life fund is to spend money on 30 or extra influence startups which might be growing technological options to stop or reply to environmental and local weather emergencies. Every startup is judged in accordance with plenty of components, together with its potential influence, crew, deal phrases, and industrial viability.
On the latter, we agree with the founders on environmental and social influence KPIs (key efficiency indicators) on a deal-by-deal foundation, largely centered on CO2 discount, however we additionally have a look at different environmental metrics akin to biodiversity, useful resource use, and plastic discount. We additionally make investments with a gender lens, the place we attempt to push the gender agenda with a goal to spend money on at the very least 30% of female-founded corporations inside our portfolio.
Investing in ladies is just not solely the correct factor to do from an moral perspective, however it’s also extensively confirmed to be probably the most financially profitable factor to do in the long run. Given that girls are additionally probably the most weak to local weather change, it additionally is smart to speculate on the intersection of local weather and gender, and we sit up for connecting with extra entrepreneurs and traders on this house.
What made you realise there’s a chance for Africans in local weather change?
With its ample photo voltaic and wind sources, together with geothermal within the case of Kenya, it’s clear that Africa must be on a path to inexperienced development from the get-go. The fast urbanisation of the continent additionally requires environment friendly planning throughout all sectors, from transportation (adoption of electrical autos) to waste administration (round fashions to upcycle plastics), constructing (vitality effectivity), vitality (micro-grids), meals (solar-powered chilly storage containers), agriculture (vertical farming), and so forth.
Though client pull is at present weaker than in additional developed markets akin to Europe, this may change over time. Governments, companies, and improvements that don’t include a inexperienced value premium—that’s, those who merely profit the top person greater than the setting—would be the important drivers of nearly all of climate-positive improvements within the interim.
What standards or metrics should startups have to have the ability to qualify for Satgana’s fund?
We’re for purpose-driven founders who construct expertise options to mitigate or adapt to local weather and ecological emergencies. We usually work with entrepreneurs at a really early stage of their enterprise growth, when there may be little greater than a strong grasp of the market, an MVP, and a few early buyer validation.
At the beginning, we have a look at the founding crew, whom we assess on each onerous and comfortable talent standards. We analyse the industrial potential and scalability like another VC. We then have a look at the potential influence on the environmental KPIs that the startup is tackling, and we hope to be as direct and significant as attainable.
We additionally take a detailed have a look at the phrases of the deal. As a lead or co-investor, we usually make fairness investments in pre-seed stage corporations for quantities starting from €50k to €500k, relying on the stage of growth and the dynamics of the spherical.
