Investors update: April 13 2023 - Evolution Fund secures $199m for clean energy in Africa

Evolution Fund secures $199m for clean energy in Africa

Highlights

• Finnfund, a Finnish development financier and impact investor, has announced a $20 million commitment to Evolution III Fund, a Pan-African equity fund aiming to foster the availability and accessibility of clean energy.
• The commitment is part of the first closing of the fund, which is managed by Inspired Evolution Managers and aims to make between 10 to 15 investments over five years.
• Evolution III closed at $199.4 million in conditional commitments from seven international investors, including several DFIs, allowing a further 12–18 months window to reach its target close of $400 million in capital commitments.

Source: ABC

Our Takeaway

In Africa, access to reliable and clean electricity remains far behind most other parts of the world. With an electrification rate of 46%, 590 million people are still without access to electricity. At the same time, the region has tremendous solar and wind potential and vast hydropower resources. The funding needed to facilitate Africa’s energy transition to a net-zero energy mix by 2050 is estimated to be around $2.8 trillion. For the continent to achieve its climate action and energy SDGs, its generation capacity must be doubled by 2030 and multiplied five-fold by 2050.

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Agritech FarmTrace gets funding to scale cloud-based solution

Highlights

• South African agritech startup FarmTrace, a cloud-based farm management tool, has raised undisclosed funding to help it expand operations.
• FarmTrace offers diverse tools to help farmers manage their operations, including a cloud-based agricultural ERP system to complement their operational requirements.
• With the new equity investment from Secha Capital and Hassium Capital, the startup aims to serve more farms, add more products, and expand to more geographies.

Source: Disrupt Africa

Our Takeaway

Modern farming is evolving rapidly, through increased demand, changes in best practices, or regulation – all of which require keeping up to date with the latest data on their farm. FarmTrace, working to address this need, is one of Africa’s exciting tech startups that have emerged in the agriculture sector. As of 2020, the emerging global agritech industry was valued at $7.8 trillion with investments reaching $2.6 billion. In Africa, between 2016 and 2019, over $19 million was invested in agritech, with the number of startups operating in the market increasing by 110%.

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Fonbnk and Tanda partner to offer DeFi applications to Africa

Highlights

• Kenyan web3 platform Fonbnk has partnered with Tanda to launch a first-of-its-kind airtime trading marketplace across Tanda’s network of 40,000 agents.
• Fonbnk is a web3 on-ramp that allows Africans to easily obtain cryptocurrency assets by exchanging their airtime credits while Tanda is a merchant network platform in East Africa with 40,000 agents.
• Through the partnership, Tanda agents and vendors can act as airtime ‘market makers’ and access new revenue streams by buying and selling prepaid airtime for profit on Fonbnk’s distributed exchange.

Source: TechCabal

Our Takeaway

The DeFi opportunity in Africa is significant and has the potential to positively impact millions of lives by empowering individuals to take control of their financial futures. With a largely unbanked population and limited access to traditional financial services, DeFi offers an opportunity to bridge this gap and provide individuals with access to financial services without requiring a bank account or traditional credit history. Moreover, DeFi offers lower transaction costs, faster processing times, and transparent systems, which can increase financial literacy and reduce the risk of fraud.