Village Capital, with support from Moody’s Foundation, announced Octavia Carbon and Integrated Aerial Precision were peer-selected as the best prepared to receive investment as part of the Innovation for Ecosystem Restoration Africa 2023 program.
Nairobi, Kenya (October 11, 2023) – Village Capital, with support from Moody’s Foundation, announced Octavia Carbon and Integrated Aerial Precision were peer-selected as the best prepared to receive investment as part of the Innovation for Ecosystem Restoration Africa 2023 program.
The program supported 10 startups developing solutions to tackle land degradation, waste management, forest management, agricultural resilience, sustainable fisheries, and other measures contributing to biodiversity conservation.
Central to this program was the VIRAL framework and peer-selection methodology, which enable startups to better understand where their solutions lie on an investment-readiness scale and, with support from a team of expert mentors, trainers, and the VilCap team, put measures in place to prime their ventures for investment and scale. These models are founded on unbiased evaluations and serve as a learning opportunity for startups to think like investors and learn from each other as they evaluate each other’s team composition, problem & vision, value proposition, product, market, business models, scale, and exit strategies, all within our Abaca web-app, which connects founders to investors, amongst other solutions.
“The VilCap team has been very diligent in creating structured and intuitive tools for analyzing aspects such as market analysis and investment readiness,” shared Duncan Kariuki, the Product Lead at Octavia Carbon, one of this cohort’s peer-selected companies. “This has been a value-adding experience to us as an early-stage company, especially as we seek to raise investment for our operations.”
Based in Kenya, Octavia Carbon designs and builds Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology to reverse climate change and end the fossil fuel age.
Nigeria-based Integrated Aerial Precision, an agricultural drone technology and data analytics service provider that delivers end-to-end solutions to farmers in Nigeria and across Africa was the second peer-selected company for its sustainable model and investment-ready proposition.
The Innovation for Ecosystem Restoration Africa 2023 program was supported by Moody’s Foundation. Watch this video to learn more about our partnership, the program, and our vision within this transformative space.
For more information, contact Eva Waweru at Village Capital (eva.waweru@vilcap.com).
About Village Capital
Village Capital is reinventing the system to back the entrepreneurs of the future. Known for its groundbreaking approaches to supporting founders who are building solutions to emergent social, economic, and environmental challenges, VilCap unlocks critical social and financial capital for early-stage companies to maximize business and impact growth.
Village Capital has operated in Sub-Saharan Africa since 2012 by running over 14 accelerator programs in serving entrepreneurs in 15 countries in the region. VilCap has supported more than 120 locally-based startups and 78 entrepreneur support organizations (ESO) working in sectors such as financial health, hardware, sustainability, and the future of work. Learn more at www.vilcap.com and follow @villagecapital.
About Moody’s Corporation
Moody’s (NYSE: MCO) is a global integrated risk assessment firm that empowers organizations to manage an era of exponential risk. Its data, analytical solutions and insights help decision-makers identify opportunities and manage the risks of doing business with others. We believe that greater transparency, more informed decisions, and fair access to information open the door to shared progress. With approximately 14,000 employees in more than 40 countries, Moody’s combines international presence with local expertise and over a century of experience in financial markets. Learn more at moodys.com/about.
