Backing the next African climate founders.
AfroClimate is a US 501(c)(3) that gives African climate entrepreneurs what I wish I'd had at the start: capital, mentorship, and a network that opens doors. The continent has the ideas, we help them travel.
The ideas aren't the bottleneck. The support is.
I've sat in the rooms where African founders pitch brilliant, locally-grounded solutions, then watch them stall for want of early capital, a warm introduction, or someone who's done it before.
AfroClimate exists to shorten that gap, so the next African climate venture doesn’t need a lucky break to get off the ground.
Our first grant put 250 clean cookstoves into 250 homes.
AfroClimate's first grant backed PowerStove Africa in Nigeria, 250 smart, smoke-free cookstoves reaching roughly 1,250 people. It adds up to around 3,000 trees spared and an estimated 875 tonnes of CO₂ avoided every year, over five years.
Born in 2023 in the Obama Foundation Leaders: Africa cohort and built with a team of fellow Obama Leaders, AfroClimate now spans founders in ten countries, including eight women-led startups across Seychelles, Madagascar and Comoros.
Three things that move a venture forward.
Capital
Early, patient funding that gets a venture from prototype to proof, the hardest stretch to finance.
Mentorship
Guidance from founders and operators who have built and scaled on the continent.
Network
Introductions to partners, customers and follow-on funders who can take an idea further.