Simba Mudimbu
Senior Portfolio Manager, Venture Programs
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Program Overview
A critical gap in the clean cooking sector is the scarcity of enterprises harnessing investments focused on climate and energy access. A mere seven companies were responsible for over 90% of the investment capital raised in 2022, underscoring the urgent need for a transformative solution.
While some clean cooking enterprises have made tremendous progress in certain areas, the broader clean cooking sector needs a much greater infusion of capital to achieve large scale expansion. The reality is that clean cooking only receives about 1% of the US$10 billion a year required to achieve universal access by 2030.
Closing the investment gap requires removing constraints for capital to flow. This includes addressing upstream constraints with regulators and investors, as well as downstream constraints with clean cooking enterprises. The Clean Cooking Alliance (CCA) Venture Accelerator aims to nurture early-stage ventures that are poised to tackle the most pressing challenges currently preventing clean cooking solutions from scaling up. By building the pipeline of companies attractive to investors focused on climate and energy access, CCA aims to drive more capital into the sector.
Cohorts
CCA implements Venture Accelerator activities via a series of themed cohorts, each made up of small- to medium-sized clean cooking enterprises. CCA uses a competitive selection process to identify cohort members. Enterprises selected for the Venture Accelerator will receive:
- Virtual and in-person learning opportunities, both modular and customized
- Tailored technical assistance to aid business acceleration
- Access to expert coaches and/or mentors to help with implementation and capacity building
- Post-program support through connection to the broader clean cooking community, including to investors and partners.
Cohort 1 – West Africa Carbon
The application period for Cohort 1 is now closed.
Cohort 1 is scheduled to begin in October 2023 for selected enterprises based in West Africa.
The primary goal of Cohort 1 is to build the capacity of clean cooking companies to attract carbon finance in support of national climate and carbon finance goals. This includes widening opportunities for small- and medium-sized clean cooking companies to attract carbon financing commitments or participate in existing carbon finance programs, while reducing investment risks for pre-financiers and carbon buyers.
Cohort 1 will recruit high-potential clean cooking enterprises with the ambition to attract carbon finance as a source of growth capital. The program will help enterprises address gaps in their knowledge, management capacity, and technical capacity that currently impede them from participating in the carbon markets and accessing carbon finance. Simultaneously, the program will increase the visibility of these enterprises to carbon project developers, intermediaries, and carbon buyers.
The Accelerator will address these challenges by providing technical assistance and capacity building support to:
- Diagnose enterprise-level gaps that impede the development of bankable carbon projects.
- Guide enterprises in understanding the evolving policy environment around carbon markets in general.
- Develop strategies to access global carbon market off-takers and national-level programs, where applicable.
- Access technical expertise to assist with the process of structuring carbon programs.
- Create linkages to ecosystems players that pre-finance carbon projects.
Cohort 1 will run for 20 weeks following an in-person bootcamp in Accra, Ghana, in November 2023. The program will be conducted in English only.
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