EchoVC, a seed and early-stage technology venture capital firm focused on investing in underrepresented founders and underserved markets has announced its latest pre-seed fund vehicle – EchoVC Eco Pilot Fund I – a $2.5m ‘pilot’ fund in partnership with Shell Foundation with co-funding through UK Aid from the UK Government.
The new fund vehicle represents the company’s commitment to identifying and investing in the most promising pre-seed startups shaping the future of climate, energy, agriculture and mobility. With the fund,the company will seek to foster very-early-stage enterprise development and innovation with solutions that enable an income uplift for all the participants along the journey.
As stated by Taiwo Kamson, Principal at EchoVC, “Our Eco Pilot Fund I is not just any fund but a strategic first step initiative designed to address the funding gap in specific impact focused sectors and the respective value chains. We believe that by focusing on these areas, we can make a lasting impact on the growth and development of innovative solutions around agriculture, climate, and energy.”
In keeping with the company’s mission to close the funding gap for underrepresented founders and startups targeting underserved markets, they invested in sector-sensitive companies targeting climate, agriculture, energy and transportation over the last 6 years. Backing incredible founders such as Sara Menker at Gro Holdings, Bim Adisa at Beacon Power Services, Dami Olokesusi at Shuttlers.NG, Desmond Koney at Complete Farmer and June Odongo at Senga, we got a first row look into the journey of these mission-fuelled founders.
Despite marked interest in harnessing the business potential on the African continent, the distribution of funding to entrepreneurs remains uneven. A sample taken from venture financing deals occurring in Africa between 2017-2021 showed that [Black] Africans accounted for 28% of CEOs and 31% of executive teams of the startups winning financing deals. For the subset of energy, mobility, and agriculture-related firms, the equivalent distribution is 21% of CEOs and 36% of executive teams. That is why as an emerging solution, this Eco Pilot Fund I is targeted at African companies and African founders in Sub Saharan Africa.
“Africa’s golden age of entrepreneurship, job creation and household lift will demand that mission-driven founders be backed by high-risk capital. Africa’s needs, while diverse, will not be solved only by investments in fintech,” said Eghosa Omoigui, Managing Partner, EchoVC.
“The objective of our eco pilot fund will be to back founders with first institutional checks and assist them in syndicating financing rounds to support their mission. As a pilot fund, we want to sponsor a pipeline of high quality founders that create high quality companies that can be supported later by the increasing number of climate and energy focused funds. We anticipate that our learnings from this vehicle will feed into our investments to be made from our larger 2024 Eco Fund,” Eghosa Omoigui stated.
The Eco Pilot Fund I will be focused on making up to ten pre-seed investments in founders and startups that span on specific areas of interest, such as companies led by Africans in Sub Saharan Africa including a specific focus on companies in Nigeria and Kenya delivering the following solutions: Access to resources – New technologies focusing on energy provision or use for agriculture (energy for agriculture).
Access to finance and insurance – Support intermediaries that can use digital technologies to unlock finance for farmers and mitigate their risks. Knowledge/Capacity Building – Focus on low-cost solutions to provide better market information and training for farming practices. Access to markets – Creating value chains connecting small holder farmers to larger supply chains thus increasing value to farmers.
Other areas of interest include, but not limited to, innovations in energy storage, cooling, and off-grid cooking, smart energy systems and mini-grids, affordable and reliable access to renewable energy, and new approaches to urban transportation including alt-powered two and three wheelers.