English
FrançaisCATALI.5°T
I&P, through its association IPED, is participating in the implementation of CATAL1.5°T, an acceleration program dedicated to financing start-ups developing innovative solutions to reduce CO2 emissions in West Africa and Latin America.
Program overview
The CATAL1.5°T Initiative aims to boost investment in high-impact, high-return, early-stage climate tech ventures from the Global South. To ensure long-lasting impact, the initiative also strengthens climate tech networks within regional start-up and venture capital ecosystems. Learn more.
Two regional platforms in Latin America and West Africa have been set up to provide seed financing and technical assistance to climate start-ups in the seed phase, enabling them to scale up from their minimum viable product (MVP), and preparing them for investment.
Supporting technological innovations in the climate sector
Access to financing is still limited for start-ups specializing in the climate sector. Yet climate-related technological innovations are essential to keep global warming close to 1.5° Celsius, and access to financing for them remains limited.
Objective: Support 180 start-ups through regional programs in Latin America and West Africa.
Program components
⇒ Pre-acceleration program: Technical and financial support (through grants of €15,000 per company) for pre-seed and seed stage ventures in the pre-acceleration phase
⇒ Acceleration program: Seed financing (in the form of a repayable advance averaging €100,000) and technical assistance missions for companies in the seed phase.
⇒ Ecosystem program: training sessions on measuring climate potential, promoting gender equality and inclusion, and integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects for entrepreneurial support structures
⇒ Climate hackathons ("Climathons") to develop start-up communities and come up with new ideas on technology/climate topics.
Program partners
The CATAL1.5°T initiative was launched by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in cooperation with EIT Climate-KIC and is financed by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
Tecnológico de Monterrey is involved in deploying the program in Latin America. For the West Africa region, I&P is in charge of prospecting and monitoring target companies.
