Village Capital Backs Five African Entrepreneur Support Organizations with $4?M Facility
Village Capital’s Africa Ecosystem Catalysts Facility (AECF), a US$4 million program aimed at investing in startups creating context-specific solutions that improve economic mobility and climate resilience in Ghana, Nigeria, and Tanzania, has announced five Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs) as venture partners.
The AECF, which is managed by Village Capital in partnership with the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank (FMO) and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), seeks to close funding gaps by making well-structured capital investments and coordinating the investment process with the knowledge of ESOs, who are the experts in their respective markets.
By working with locally-led ESOs, the AECF adopts an ecosystem-embedded approach to investment, facilitating a more efficient allocation of funds, grounded in profound local knowledge, to startups creating solutions that raise livelihoods, promote financial inclusion, and strengthen climate change resilience.
The AECF aims to boost the larger entrepreneurial ecosystems in each nation and quicken the flow of suitable, early-stage capital to the areas that need it most by funding high-impact businesses and giving ESOs the authority to participate as co-evaluators during the investment process.
