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Five35 Ventures Secures Anchor Investment from Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund
The MEDA-backed anchor capital is expected to bolster Five35’s capacity to deepen its reach across East, West and Southern Africa, support more female entrepreneurs, and bridge critical financing gaps between pre-seed and scale stages.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Context Instead of Carbon: Why Climate Finance in Africa Must Shift its Focus from Mitigation to Adaptation
Global climate action has long been framed through a binary lens: either mitigation or adaptation. As Sheena Raikundalia at Kuza One explains, this framework shapes how funding flows, how projects are designed and even how “success” is measured: Mitigation attracts the bulk of funding because it produces measurable carbon outcomes and enables high-emitting countries to meet their net-zero targets, while adaptation's local benefits are harder to quantify, commodify or sell. She argues that this imbalance risks turning African landscapes into carbon farms for the Global North, and also obscures the fact that many of Africa’s most climate-smart solutions could be promising investments — if the current financing architecture would support them. NOTE: In celebration of our 20th anniversary, NextBillion is highlighting key guest articles from our two decades online. We’re currently focusing on the healthcare sector: You can read these featured articles below.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment, Investing
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Finland and EU Launch €2 Billion Digitalisation Programme Across Emerging Markets
The programme is part of the EU’s Global Gateway strategy, which aims to strengthen sustainable connectivity with partner countries and marks the EU’s largest guarantee initiative for the digital sector to date.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
- Region
- Global
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Analysis: Time is a Social Innovator’s Most Precious Resource: Why Are So Many Funders Wasting It?
"In these decades of engagement with the social innovation ecosystem, I’ve seen plenty of good practices, and plenty of bad ones. But there’s one thing that continues to shock me: how wasteful some of the funding world is with the ecosystem’s time."
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
- Region
- Global
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Press Release: IFC Invests in World’s First Digital Gender Bond by Akbank to Empower Women in Türkiye
$100 million investment will expand access to finance for women-owned businesses and increase home ownership for women in Türkiye.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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100 Electric Buses Deployed Across East Africa as Proparco Supports BasiGo
Proparco has completed an investment in BasiGo, a Nairobi-based e-mobility start-up providing electric bus solutions for public transport operators in Kenya and Rwanda.
- Categories
- Energy, Investing, Transportation
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Impact Funds Now Manage Up to $80 Billion Across Africa, Report Shows
The updated dataset identifies 250 funds whose strategies match the core principles of impact investing.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Deetken Impact Expands Climate Finance Leadership as Canada Joins Inclusive Climate Action Fund
Deetken Impact, a leading Canadian impact investment firm, is proud to partner with the Government of Canada and announce their CAD$106 million commitment in the new Inclusive Climate Action Fund (ICAF).
- Categories
- Environment, Investing
- Region
- Global
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