ClimAccelerator selects 15 finalists to join the Africa climate-focused accelerator

Nairobi, 10 January 2022. Africa ClimAccelerator has selected 15 of Africa’s top climate solution start-ups to receive funding, expertise, and mentorship via the first pan-African accelerator focused on scaling the most promising climate-focused innovations.

The Africa ClimAccelerator received 691 applications from 44 African countries and selected the most innovative solutions to combat climate change from 10 African countries. The Africa ClimAccelerator programme aims to enhance the development and deployment of innovative technology to accelerate climate-positive business solutions for a net-zero Africa. 

Africa ClimAccelerator Start-Ups

Meet the 15 exceptional businesses from across the continent prioritising sustainability as part of their mission and growth:

1. Wastezon (Rwanda) – Wastezon App provides real-time e-waste mineralogical data that connects recyclers with households to sell recyclable solid waste, allowing users to get price transparency and enabling efficient reverse logistics. 
2. Arone Energy (Nigeria) – Arone’s mission is to pioneer technologies that make the world work better. The Power hub enables access to affordable, uninterrupted power supply for 100M Nigerians by generating and storing electricity. 
3. Asa Nwura (Ghana) – Asa Nwura provides an adaptive USSD platform that allows waste generators, collectors, recyclers and off-takers to connect, creating a wholistic approach to waste management and a cleaner environment. 
4. Cool Lion (Cote D’ Ivoire) – Cool Lion develops and markets rent-to-own solar-powered refrigerated containers to provide cooling solutions to underserved small-scale fishers and farmers. 
5. D-Olivette (Nigeria) – D-Olivette provides a decentralised energy solution for rural communities through products that transform organic waste into biogas and fertiliser. 
6. Ecotutu (Nigeria) – Ecotutu is a cleantech company re-designing the way essential products are cooled and distributed in rural and urban areas. They design, develop and deploy next-generation cold storage solutions using solar and phase change materials. 
7. Electrotaxi (South Africa) – Electrotaxi retails and leases electric minibuses to taxi operators supplied by solar-powered high-speed charging and battery swapping stations. 
8. Green Cities (Liberia) – Green Cities’ mission is to create a clean, green, and healthy environment through a waste value chain. They compost organic waste into quality organic fertiliser for farmers, collect, clean and re-brand plastic bottle and other inorganic waste for reuse purposes. 
9. Map & Rank (Cameroon) – Map & Rank’s platform RESIDAT is an innovative solution to tackling climate change literacy and data comprehension at a community level. They collect data that can be used to forecast potential climate risks and disseminate it to communities. 
10. NovFeed (Tanzania) – NovFeed recycles readily available organic waste into protein-rich fish feed using patented technology and a process that yields a high protein feed that is natural and organic. 
11. Salubata (Nigeria) – Salubata manufactures high-end shoes from recycled plastics. They collect plastic waste from communities by engaging with local community, with a focus on women as their field agents, and then recycle these into customisable shoes. 
12. Mega Gas (Kenya) – Mega Gas converts plastic waste into clean and affordable cooking gas for low-income families in Kenya. They refine unsorted polythene/plastic waste through a clean process with no emissions, no residue, and no pollution to the environment.
13. Agaruw (Tunisia) – Agaruw is an online marketplace and a brand for eco-friendly, handmade, and customisable products. They collect and buy waste, reusable/recycled, ecological materials and secondhand items and use innovative ways of manufacturing such as 3D printing technology to create different fashion products. 
14. WorldTech Consult (Ghana) – WorldTech Consult is a renewable energy start-up that specialises in the design, development, and installation of solar-powered walk-in cold rooms for market women and smallholder farmers, in order to extend the shelf life of perishable crops. The vision is to reduce food waste, adapt to climate change and improve the living condition of youth and women by creating green jobs.
15. Zuhura Solutions (Kenya) – Zuhura’s Halisi Trolley is a solar-powered food cart that generates electricity and energy to enable street food vendors to save on costs and alleviate the use of charcoal that is primarily used to heat the food and keep it warm. 

Africa ClimAccelerator Partners

About the Climate-KIC International Foundation
The object of the Foundation is to contribute in the broadest possible sense to the protection of nature and the environment, including the enhancement of sustainability, in aid of the common good, both ecological and human, by way of innovation of climate change mitigation and adaptation, and by stimulation of education and research in the field of climate change mitigation and adaptation, and to do anything which is, in the widest sense of the word, connected with or may be conducive to the attainment of this object. The Foundation’s entrepreneurship portfolio covers the development pipeline that starts at the activation and ideation stages and offers innovators the opportunity to incubate solutions into successful climate-positive start-ups.

About ClimAccelerator
ClimAccelerator is the main climate innovation solution provider in Europe with a 10-year track record, with over 1,500 solutions supported and nearly €1 billion of capital secured.

About the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (‘GIZ’)
GIZ is Germany’s leading provider of international cooperation services. As a federal enterprise, it supports the German Government in achieving its objectives in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development. GIZ is fully owned by the Federal Republic of Germany, represented as the shareholder by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF). GIZ has more than 23,600 staff around the globe and operates in about 120 countries worldwide and has over 50 years of experience in a wide variety of areas, including economic development and employment promotion, energy and the environment, and peace and security.

About GrowthAfrica
GrowthAfrica is a leading African accelerator and advisory firm delivering growth activities programmes for impactful African ventures. GrowthAfrica provides business growth programs for high-potential entrepreneurs as well as design and delivers activities for partners and clients in support of entrepreneurs. GrowthAfrica has offices in Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Zambia, Malawi, and Ghana. 

About the Carbon Trust
Established in 2001, the Carbon Trust works with businesses, governments, and institutions around the world, helping them contribute to, and benefit from a more sustainable future through carbon reduction, resource efficiency strategies, and commercialising low carbon businesses, systems and technologies. Headquartered in London, the Carbon Trust has a global team of over 300 staff, representing over 30 nationalities, based across five continents.  

The Carbon Trust:

• Works with corporates and governments, helping them to align their strategies with climate science and meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.
  
• Provides expert advice and assurance, giving investors and financial institutions the confidence that green finance will have genuinely green outcomes; and
  
• Supports the development of low carbon technologies and solutions, building the foundations for the energy system of the future.
  

Contact Information
To find out more about the programme, please contact: Kathryn Mumbua at +254 733 214 794 or kmu@growthafrica.com