👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Daily – Access on a rampage

Africa contributes about 3% of the global greenhouse gas emissions, yet, it is most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. With droughts and rising sea levels threatening water scarcity and energy supply, it is clear that impactful climate solutions are needed. 

While the likes of Greta Thunberg challenge world leaders to take action to mitigate the effects of climate change through policies, some VCs like Novastar Ventures and Satgana are taking the cue to fund climate-focused innovations in Africa to give an alternative to traditional products.

Satgana, a climate-focused VC firm, believes that everyone will willingly use green alternatives if climate tech products can be offered at green discounts.

The firm also believes in leveraging the entrepreneurial population in Africa. To this length, it aims to fund at least 30 climate tech startups across Africa and Europe after finalising its first fund at $8.6 million in March.

Here’s the catch though. If the adoption of climate tech products is to be accelerated, these solutions must extend beyond the traditionally focused areas of climate tech, such as energy, mobility, and waste management, to address the complexities of the climate crisis.

Satgana invests between €100k ($105,000) and €300k ($315,000) in early-stage, category-defining climate tech startups and prioritises underserved areas of climate tech. 

Uncover the untapped opportunities in Africa’s climate tech scene in an exclusive interview with Romain Diaz, CEO of Satgana.

Fourteen. That’s how many African countries are on the FATF Greylist—a list that contains countries lacking solid structures for fighting money laundering. When it comes to it, bad actors can illicitly move money around these weak systems, for whatever malicious reason, and likely won’t get caught.

This effectively means that a quarter of all African countries are considered risky to the international finance community. Since these African countries hit this realisation, they’ve doggedly forced financial service providers to enforce strict compliance checks on users. Yet, for so long, crypto has eluded them.

South Africa is changing that. The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has approved 248 crypto asset service provider (CASP) licences, showing a shift towards stricter regulation of the crypto space. This push is part of South Africa’s efforts to get off the FATF Greylist.

To comply, crypto providers must meet “fit and proper” requirements under the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act. For users, this means stricter identity checks when using crypto platforms. Providers must collect details like names, IDs, wallet addresses, and transaction histories. While this could slow onboarding, it will also reduce the risks of fraud, money laundering, and illegal activities.

South Africa is nearing its goal to regulate crypto and maintain strict oversight on a financial asset that is notorious for being untraceable. The legal regulation of crypto will also further encourage adoption in a country that is already pro-crypto.

This week, Eyone, a Senegal-based digital health startup, raised $1 million in a funding round contributed by Sonatel Group, Véhicule d’Investissement et de Financing (VIF), and BICIS (December 9)

Here are the other deals for the week:

• Billboxx, a Nigerian fintech startup, raised $1.6 million pre-seed (a mix of debt and equity) funding from Norrsken Accelerator, Kaleo Ventures, 54 Collective, P2Vest, and Afrinovation Ventures. (December 11)

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more funding announcements. Before you go, our Future of Commerce: Outlook for 2025 Report is out. Click this link to download it.