Paris-Based VC Firm, Satgana Closes $30M Fund for African Climate Tech Startups
Satgana, a Paris-based climate tech venture capital firm, has closed its first $30 million fund to support entrepreneurs in sectors such as food and agriculture, energy, mobility, and buildings/industry, as well as in carbon removal and circular economies more broadly across Europe and Africa.
According to Satgana, over 30 LPs invested in the firm’s first round, including Thibaud Hug de Larauze (co-founder and CEO of impact unicorn Back Market), Josef Bovet (CEO of Tiller Systems), Fabrice de Gaudemar (CEO of Qotto and ex-executive board member of Eurazeo), Elsa Hermal (co-founder of Epicery), and the family office Cullom Capital.
What you should know about Satgana
The fund’s team, which includes individuals with operational and strategic experience, will invest up to $500,000 in pre-seed and seed stages across these two regions. It also intends to pre- and post-invest with a “diversity and inclusion” mindset.
In addition to the three currently funded investments: – Orbio Earth, a German startup that is creating a platform for energy suppliers to use satellite data to monitor and reduce methane emissions, Mazi Mobility, a Kenyan startup that is building an East African network of electric motorcycles as well as a battery-swapping infrastructure. And Yeasty, a French firm that is developing an alternative protein using beer yeasts in a circular format. – The fund plans to make two more investments in climate tech businesses shortly.
Speaking on the fund, Romain Diaz, founder, and CEO of Satgana said in a statement that “the climate and ecological crisis is the defining issue of our time. As a gigantic challenge ahead of us, it is also a massive business opportunity as we need to reinvent all the sectors of our economies to meet the targets of the Paris Agreement.”
Satgana’s Venture partner will be Patrcia Silva (based in Lisbon), co-founder and non-executive director of the Carbon Removal Centre. The investment director will be Anil Maguru.
Among the advisers are Lubomila J. (Plan A and co-founder of Greentech Alliance) and James Crowley (former co-founder and CTO of FundApps).