The African Venture Philanthropy Alliance, based in Nairobi, with regional offices in Johannesburg and Lagos, is a pan-African network for social investors interested in collaborating to increase the flow of capital into social investments in Africa and ensure that capital (financial, human, and/or intellectual) is deployed as effectively and innovatively as possible for maximum social impact.
With C3 support in Phase 1, AVPA developed a training program to drive an increase in the number of catalytic investors on the continent, thus supporting the increase of the availability of risk capital in Africa.
Building on this foundation, AVPA’s new phase partnership with C3 in 2025 takes a holistic approach to strengthening and expanding Africa’s catalytic capital ecosystem. Through a combination of practical training, mentorship, and peer learning, AVPA is equipping fund managers, foundations, and institutional investors with the skills to deploy catalytic structures effectively, capturing and disseminating regional insights and lessons from catalytic capital providers to guide replication, and fostering partnerships through workshops, panels, and the Deal Share Platform—a members-only network enabling co-investment in investable impact opportunities across Africa.
By linking these activities with policy advocacy and catalytic pooled funds, AVPA aims to increase catalytic capital flows, accelerate high-impact investments, and cultivate a sustainable, collaborative investment community across the continent.
“Africa remains a major impact opportunity in the world but is largely held back by inadequate financing for social investments and especially catalytic or risk capital,” said Dr. Frank Aswani, AVPA’s CEO. “Progress towards mobilizing sufficient social investments to address our SDG financing gap will only be achieved if we can creatively mobilize and deploy private capital for social investments, and catalytic capital is important in unlocking this capital. This has taken on even more significance with the recent aid cuts. Through this program we are training African grantmakers, governments, and investors on catalytic investing, thus enhancing their ability to work with and mobilize private capital for sustainable impact on the continent,” he said.
For more on AVPA: https://avpa.africa/