81304676-Climate Venture Acceleration Program in West Africa (Francophone)

Limiting global warming to 1.5°C will require rapid, far-reaching transformations across every sector. If we are serious about achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we will need more business and technology breakthrough innovations and we will need them at a speed, scale, and impact like never before. Climate ventures are well placed to make a difference in delivering climate action. They can, at limited risk to the economy, demonstrate the market feasibility of innovative, low-emission technologies and business models, and inject pace and ambition into private-sector mitigation efforts. Climate ventures can provide solutions that are currently neglected by markets ("breakthrough technologies") as well as improving upon products and services that are already available ("incremental technologies"). It is in this context that we have developed the concept of CATALI.5°T. The CATALI.5°T Initiative will establish and implement regional technical assistance and investment grant platforms that build a portfolio of early-stage climate ventures with significant mitigation potential. The regional technical assistance and investment grant platform consists of: - The Community-building and ideation activities will support and encourage entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs to develop climate business ideas at an early stage and build a pipeline for the pre-acceleration stage. - The pre-acceleration stage focuses on providing support to pre-seed climate ventures to enable them to develop minimum viable climate products or services. This support will take the form of Technical Assistance and Financial Assistance (grant of up to EUR 15k). - The acceleration stage focuses on providing acceleration support to more advanced, seed-stage climate ventures to enable them to further develop or validate their products or services. This support will take the form of Technical Assistance and Financial Assistance (repayable grant of up to EUR 200k). In addition, focused capacity building of local accelerators and investors will take place to enable them to develop climate expertise and develop more targeted offers to Climate Tech entrepreneurs. The CATALI.5°T Initiative will be implemented in Latin America and West Africa. The presented project refers to West Africa only. Targeted outcomes: - 60 pre-seed climate ventures graduate from regional CATALI.5°T pre-acceleration program equipped with high-quality, climate-validated products or services that are ready for market entry - 30 seed-stage climate ventures graduate from each regional CATALI.5°T acceleration programme, equipped with robust, market-tested, low-emission solutions that are primed for rapid market growth. - 58 Mt of CO2-equivalent* avoided by project-supported climate ventures (over the lifespan of 20 years) * Targets for CO2 reduction includes the Latin America Platform. Scope: The West African CATALI.5°T Initiative will be open to ventures from Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d"Ivoire, Guinea, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo, subject to the condition that no sanctions or limitation apply for the eligible countries. The CATALI.5°T Initiative in West Africa will be implemented by the GIZ initiative Make-IT in Africa II on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and Green Climate Fund (GCF).