Mesh Venture Partners

Village Capital concludes three-year Empowering Sustainable Entrepreneurship Africa programme and awards US$500,000 in grant funding to 32 African climate startups. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/dmKfwjgk

OmniRetail Marks Seven Years with a Report That Names the Problem It Was Built to Solve OmniRetail launched its FMCG Industry Report 2026 recently at the Omni Insights Forum in Lagos, marking its seventh anniversary by naming, in data, the problem it was built to solve. The numbers put scale to the gap. Nigeria's FMCG sector is worth $25 billion, growing toward $36 billion by 2030. Yet only 18% of retailers have ever accessed a formal loan, and 56% face active working capital gaps. Demand is not the constraint. Visibility and access are. The report was launched alongside Nigeria's Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, a signal that OmniRetail is no longer just operating in the space it identified seven years ago. It is now defining how that space is understood. That shift — from operator to reference point — is what patient capital is built to produce. Seven years ago, OmniRetail was infrastructure for a problem few were measuring. Today, it is the company measuring it: for government, for investors, for the industry it operates in. As an Alitheia portfolio company under the uMunthu Fund, OmniRetail’s trajectory reflects a core investment thesis: markets cannot finance what they cannot see. By formalising fragmented retail networks, building data visibility, and expanding access to working capital, OmniRetail is making one of Africa’s largest informal sectors more investable, efficient, and inclusive. Congratulations to Deepankar Rustagi and the OmniRetail team. Report link: https://lnkd.in/gAfn6-di 'Tokunboh Ishmael, CFA  Moyosore Babalola Damilola Adeyeye Ewhomazino Glory Bernard  Peter Justin Akpan, CFA, ACA Frank Nnamka, CFA Adeola Akinola MBA,MCIPM,HRPL,SPHRi,MITD,FCGP Lionel Adabayeri Uduak Boyle Tomilola (Adewoye)Tobun Ekene Odiari - Ajayi Nnamdi Aguh Farida Adewale #GenderLensInvesting #AlitheiaCapital #ImpactInvesting #PrivateEquity #Africa #FMCG #Omni #AlitheiaPortfoliostories

📢 We've just published a new report: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮 𝟮.𝟬: 𝗠𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗡𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀, developed by Briter in partnership with Catalyst Fund, FSD Africa, and BFA Global, with funding data support from Africa: The Big Deal. African ClimateTech has grown from $206M across 28 companies in 2016 to $1.5B+ across 223 companies in 2025. It now accounts for nearly 40% of all disclosed venture funding on the continent. But that growth isn't happening evenly. We used Carlota Perez's techno-economic framework to map 18 ClimateTech applications across 10 clusters, looking not just at where capital is flowing, but also at how different parts of the ecosystem are actually maturing. Some of what we found: ✅ The top 20 funded companies have captured 60% of all ClimateTech funding raised since 2016 ✅ Energy alone accounts for around 65% of total funding (2019 to 2025) ✅ Adaptation solutions receive just 16% of funding, despite being critical to resilience ✅ Women-only founding teams receive less than 1% of funding ✅ Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa together capture about 76% of total funding volume If you're an investor, DFI, donor, founder, or policymaker working in African ClimateTech, this report will help you see where capital is working, where it's stalling, and what each part of the ecosystem needs to grow. Read the report now: https://lnkd.in/ewgZA3ky Maelis Carraro, Hannah Eskinder, David Saunders, Grace Akinyi, Mireille Ferrari, Juliet Munro, Mary Kashangaki, Audrey Chebet, Kaara Wainaina, Musumba Allan, Maxime Bayen, Valiullah Hashmi

In the first half of the year, Tekedia Capital has invested in about two dozen companies across the world. Now, we are looking for more opportunities in Nigeria. Our preference is for companies solving foundational market frictions. Yes, businesses that can eventually become platforms powering entire ecosystems and creating new bases of competition. We are sector-agnostic and back exceptional founders wherever we find them. And yes, we move quickly. How do you get started? It is simple: send us your public website. No pitch deck. No proprietary information. No lengthy documents. If we visit your website and like what we see, our investment team will reach out for more. Build. Launch. Share your website. Let us see what you are building in Nigeria. Tekedia Capital >> we fund innovations

Attention investors! Are you looking for top-quality, de-risked ventures for your portfolio? We are excited to announce the develoPPP Ventures Deal Room, featuring a curated selection of high-impact startups that have successfully scaled through the program. Why join the develoPPP Ventures Deal Room? - Quality pipeline: Meet ventures that have undergone a rigorous due diligence process and established professional data rooms. - Proven track record: Over 100 startups financed with more than EUR 48M in follow-on investment raised across the portfolio. - Sector-agnostic impact: Connect with innovators across Health, CleanTech, Food & Agri-tech, and Sustainable Finance. - Catalytic leverage: The EUR 100K non-dilutive matching funds help de-risk your investment and unlock further growth potential. If you’re looking to deploy capital in high-impact, operational ventures in Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania, this is the room to be in. 📅 Date: June 29th, 2026 📍 Location: Virtual 🔗 Register your interest here: https://lnkd.in/drpH5SwS  ℹ️ Visit the investor page to learn more about the program and view the current portfolio: https://lnkd.in/dpXJVpuq develoPPP Ventures is funded by Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), implemented by DEG Impulse with implementation support by VC4A. #develoPPPVentures #ImpactInvesting #VentureCapital #EastAfrica #StartupShowcase #CoInvestment

In Ghana, women own 44% of small businesses. The country has one of the highest rates of financial account ownership in sub-Saharan Africa, so the rails for digital trade already exist. The next order of business is translating these accounts into capital, credit and customers in new markets. Last week in Accra, Visa and ITC SheTrades launched a programme to do that. The programme will be implemented in collaboration with the Ghana Export Promotion Authority as host of the SheTrades Ghana Hub, and will put digital payments, finance and export expertise in the hands of the women already running these businesses. Activities kick off on 16 July. Learn more ➡️ Link in comments below.

𝗗𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝘂𝗽𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗮𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻 𝗺𝗶𝗰𝗿𝗼𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿𝘀? Women micro-enterprises across Africa are often informal and resource-constrained, with limited access to formal credit. They mostly prefer small, easily accessible, and flexible loans that help them manage short-term liquidity needs while navigating the uncertainties of running a business. Through the Opportunity Leads Umbrella Program, BFA Global worked with Healthy Entrepreneurs, Victory Farms, and Powered by People (PBP) to test three credit products designed for women micro-entrepreneurs in Kenya, evaluating uptake and their impact on business growth and income. The pilot results showed that access to credit alone is insufficient to drive formal borrowing among women micro-enterprises. Uptake depends on other factors as well such as timing, design, and delivery of credit. We also learned that: ✅ Women micro-entrepreneurs are not a homogeneous group. Capital needs vary by business stage, making segmentation critical to effective credit design. ✅ Credit works best when paired with tools that help women manage income volatility and build financial resilience. ✅ Access to credit alone is not enough for new entrepreneurs. Skills, confidence, business networks, and household support matter. ✅ Clear communication of loan terms and costs is essential to building trust and encouraging uptake. Learn more about what drives women micro-entrepreneurs to adopt and use formal credit, and how these insights can inform better financial product design, in our latest blog. https://lnkd.in/dt3DsRrR Ankita Singh | Priyanka Kapoor| Phoebe K. | Janet Rose Opolot | Amolo Ngweno | Hannah Eskinder | Anne Gachoka | Nathalie Ngatia, MBA | Maha Khan #WEE #SMEs #financialservices #formalcredit