by Nahlah Abdur-Rahman
July 22, 2025
The affect fund helps these women-led companies by means of grants, loans, and extra.
A brand new affect fund invests in environmentally targeted startups throughout Africa, backed financially by Rihanna.
Collect Ventures has a lofty mission in thoughts: to help African girls founders championing environmental reduction and local weather resilience. Collect has its personal girls founder, Jo Opot, to thank for its function.
Born in Kenya, Opot understands the battle and perseverance of African girls as they forge their very own livelihoods. Her upbringing drives her present mission to amplify these companies, whereas protecting the atmosphere in thoughts.
“In Kenya, girls’s constitutional proper to inherit property was solely legally acknowledged in 2012,” Opot defined to AFROTECH. “Many ladies construct belongings with their companions or households, but when their companions go away, that wealth typically goes to the person’s household, not the girl who contributed. We need to transfer past revenue to actual asset possession for ladies in order that they will construct intergenerational wealth.”
Backed by Rihanna’s Clara Lionel Basis, Collect Ventures seeks to help “ventures that each create local weather resilience and drive asset creation for ladies and ladies throughout Africa.” Launched in 2021, the Affect Fund helps girls founders throughout varied sectors, together with agriculture, development, expertise, training, and workforce growth.
The fund primarily helps women-led companies that promote environmental sustainability, accounting for 80% of its investments. One enterprise consumer consists of Mobility for Africa, which offers tricycles for transportation that higher match the wants of girls riders. One other firm, Giraffe Bioenergy, transforms cassava, a drought-resistant plant typically grown by girls, right into a hearty meals supply and converts it into clear ethanol cooking gas.
“Extra capital must go to local weather adaptation and resilience, not simply mitigation,” added Opot. “Low-income communities going through drought didn’t trigger it, however they undergo essentially the most. Second, gender must be mainstreamed in local weather finance as a result of investing in girls is confirmed to be extremely efficient.”
Each corporations have been in a position to increase their operations and merchandise by means of Collect Ventures. What this assist appears to be like like, nonetheless, varies, with the fund tailoring its providers for every companies’ wants. Whether or not providing grants, loans, or different assets, Collect Ventures offers sustainable help to assist these corporations develop.
“We’re instrument agnostic, offering grants, working capital, fairness, or debt as wanted, serving to entrepreneurs keep away from taking the flawed capital for the flawed causes,” Opot continued. “We give attention to agriculture — the most important employer of girls — and likewise on development and tech, the fastest-growing sectors with the fewest girls. To enhance gender fairness, we should get extra girls into rising sectors to make sure long-term, viable careers.”
Opot hopes that Collect Ventures promotes extra girls visionaries in Africa to acquire inexperienced belongings. She encourages others interested by local weather justice to first join with the native communities they want to affect.
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