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Africa’s Startup Surge Hits $705 Million as Investment Momentum Builds
Venture capital flows into African startups accelerated sharply in early 2026, signalling a maturing ecosystem with broader geographic reach and more sophisticated funding structures.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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WDI Partners with Villgro Africa and Haskè Ventures to Scale R&D Impact Voucher Model Across Seven African Countries
R&D impact vouchers connect small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs) with public research organizations through affiliated researchers, enabling businesses that might otherwise lack resources to access cutting-edge scientific expertise while providing African researchers with access to SMEs that they normally would not be exposed to.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Analysis: Impact Investing’s Defining Moment
In 2008, the Rockefeller Foundation Board of Trustees approved $38 million to support the Impact Investing Initiative, with the establishment of the Global Impact Investing Network as a key outcome. The GIIN was conceived as the “prime collective action platform” and “chief legacy instrument” to sustain and extend the gains of the initiative (Harji & Jackson, 2012; Jackson & Harji, 2012).
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Global
- Tags
- ESG, impact investing, nonprofits
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African Development Bank Group Invests Over €7.5 Million in Breega Africa Seed I Fund to Support African Innovative Startups
The fund will focus on five key markets, namely Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Egypt and Francophone Africa, which are major hubs on the continent.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Hidden Filters: How to Fix the Biases that Skew Investment Pipelines Away from Women Founders
Over the past decade, gender lens investing has moved from the fringes of impact investing into a more mainstream priority for many investors. But as Michal Januszewski at LeFil Consulting argues, while the overall gender-lens thesis has gained traction, the actual representation of women-led businesses remains stubbornly low within investor portfolios, with women-only founding teams capturing just 2.3% of global VC funding in 2024. He explores the structural and behavioral biases that can exclude women founders in each stage of the investment funnel, and shares practical recommendations on how investors can address them.
- Categories
- Investing
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Analysis: Does Everything in the Social Sector Need to Scale?
In a world that no longer behaves like a scalable system, success must be something other than growth.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
- Region
- Global
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Peru’s Natural Legacy Secures $37.5 Million Funding Boost from Green Climate Fund
New investment strengthens long-term protection of more than 15 million hectares of the Peruvian Amazon and expands Indigenous-led climate resilience.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing
- Region
- Latin America
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Novastar Ventures Closes $147 Million Fund for African Startups
The fund will invest across stages, typically entering at pre-Series A through Series B, where companies have achieved early product-market fit but still carry significant risk.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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