Persistent Launches $70M Africa Climate Venture Fund

Tobias Ruckstuhl, Persistent Managing Partner

Persistent has launched the $70 million Persistent Africa Climate Venture Fund (Persistent ACV Fund), with a first close of $52 million and an additional $5 million Venture Building Facility (VBF) to accelerate the growth of early-stage climate ventures across Africa.

Domiciled in Mauritius, the Fund is focused on supporting businesses driving Africa’s Energy, Agriculture, and Resource Transitions.

While it targets investments from pre-seed through Series A, it retains flexibility to provide follow-on capital to high-performing portfolio companies.

The Fund combines equity investment with Persistent’s tailored Venture Building platform, designed to help portfolio companies scale efficiently while increasing operational maturity.

The Fund is structured with a blended finance model, offering private investors first-loss and priority return protection, further reinforced by the contribution-funded $5 million VBF.

“Achieving the first close of the Persistent ACV Fund is a strong show of confidence in Persistent and the Fund’s strategy,” the Partners of Persistent said.

“Early-stage climate innovation in Africa is investable at scale and presents a compelling opportunity for investors. We are excited to back entrepreneurs building businesses across Africa’s Energy, Agriculture and Resource Transitions. We believe that the growing alignment between catalytic and commercial capital is essential to closing Africa’s climate financing gap, and we look forward to translating that alignment into disciplined execution, impact, and long-term value creation.”

Africa faces a disproportionate share of climate risk while receiving only a small fraction of global climate financing, and early-stage climate ventures often struggle to access both capital and operational support.

Persistent ACV Fund seeks to address this gap by combining investment with bespoke Venture Building services to help companies move from early traction to scalable, high-impact businesses. The Fund targets over 17 million tons of CO₂/GHG mitigated, more than 7 million overall beneficiaries with half female, 60,000 direct jobs with gender parity, 420,000 households with new or improved electricity connections, and over $450 million in additional investment catalyzed over its lifetime.

The Fund is managed by Persistent ACV GP Ltd. and advised by Persistent Energy Capital LLC, a U.S. venture capital firm with offices across Africa and Europe.

It was launched in collaboration with FSD Africa Investments (FSDAi), a specialist financial sector investor established by FSD Africa and the UK's FCDO, which also served as an anchor investor.

Anne-Marie Chidzero, Chief Investment Officer of FSDAi, said: “Closing Africa's climate financing gap requires more than capital. It requires the right fund managers, supported at the right moment, through structures that give other investors the confidence to follow. Our anchor commitment to the Persistent Africa Climate Venture Builder Fund is built on that logic: identifying early-stage climate fund managers with genuine potential and providing the catalytic capital they need to establish a credible track record.”

Other anchor investors include the Nordic Development Fund (NDF) and the African Development Bank’s Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (AfDB SEFA), with additional support from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF), Impact Fund Denmark, the Schmidt Family Foundation, and the Cottier Donzé Foundation.

Satu Santala, Managing Director of NDF, commented: “As a catalytic investor, NDF is pleased to support the Persistent ACV Fund, providing concessional capital to early-stage climate initiatives. Persistent has a strong track record in supporting local innovation and ownership, and now they are scaling this model beyond energy into other climate-relevant sectors, bringing clear value to the market.”

João Duarte Cunha of AfDB added: “Catalytic capital is essential to unlock Africa’s climate innovation potential. We are pleased to partner with Persistent to strengthen a growing ecosystem of early-stage African climate innovators—entrepreneurs who are expanding energy access and driving the clean energy transition.”

Shohei Hara, Senior Vice President of JICA, said: “The Persistent ACV Fund is the very first investment under the JICA Blended Finance Window. By investing into the Fund and underlying climate entrepreneurs, we want to showcase the mobilization of private capital through catalytic investment, supporting Africa’s low-carbon development pathways while promoting gender-lens investments.”

Georgia Levenson Keohane, CEO of SEDF, added: “SEDF is proud to invest in Persistent’s Africa Climate Venture Builder Fund, which will help scale early-stage climate solutions, unlock private capital, and build a resilient, climate-positive future for communities across the continent.”

The Fund’s $5 million VBF, supported by NDF and the Dutch development bank FMO, provides pipeline and portfolio companies with tailored support in finance, fundraising, strategy, ESG, technology, legal, and marketing.

Andrew Shaw, Manager, Market Creation – Financial Inclusion at FMO, said: “By pairing early-stage capital with hands-on Venture Building, Persistent equips CleanTech companies across Africa to grow at their most critical stages. We are proud to back initiatives like this that broaden financial inclusion, accelerate climate-positive innovation, and unlock sustainable economic opportunities across the continent.”

With the first close complete, Persistent ACV Fund is now moving into its investment phase, supporting African entrepreneurs who are building scalable solutions that accelerate decarbonization, expand energy access, and deliver measurable socio-economic and climate impact.

Source: Africa Global Funds