Restart Catalyst
WHY
Restart Catalyst is aimed at increasing capital availability of women-led and local entrepreneur-led social enterprises in East Africa working on climate mitigation and adaptation solutions. Our capital injection is aimed at helping these enterprises catalyze their growth both commercially and in their impact on gender, climate, and social aspects.
HOW
OPES LCEF, through Restart Catalyst, provides patient capital support to early-stage impact enterprises looking to raise seed or pre-seed capital in form of an impact-linked loan instrument with interest rates linked to impact and gender objectives.
We will invest into impact companies targeting three key sectors:
- Clean Energy
- Sustainable Agriculture
- Mobility / Transportation
Embedded on a strong gender lens and inclusive approach to magnify our impact.
KEY TERMS
- Instrument: Impact-linked Loan with interest rates linked to impact and gender objectives
- Timeline: Up to 4 years
- Ticket Size: Between $120,000 to $250,000
BENEFICIARIES
Restart Catalyst will support impact-driven enterprises in East Africa:
- early-stage enterprises with a validated business model making consistent revenues, are gross margin positive and are looking to raise Pre-Seed or Seed Capital from an institutional investor
- enterprises with innovative solutions from one of the following sectors: Clean energy, Sustainable Agriculture, and Mobility / Transportation.
We prioritize companies that impact the low-income population anywhere across the value chain, have strong gender lens (women co-founders, inclusive management team, gendered product offerings), and with locally rooted founders.
PARTNERS
IRRI-HUB KEDevelop affordable, efficient, and sustainable irrigation products 
SHAMBA PRIDEAn online-to-offline marketplace, through which agro-dealersINVESTMENT COMMITTEE
Elena Casolari
Elena is co-founder and Executive President of Fondazione Opes-Lcef, Opes-Lcef Trust, Opes Italia Sicaf and chair Opes-Lcef Investment committee. For 10 years Elena was CEO at ACRA, a leading Italian NGO working in 16 countries and before that she spent 12 years in the investment banking industry covering emerging markets. Elena serves as a Director at Fondazione Umano Progresso, the Social Enterprise World Forum C.i.C , and the Social Impact Agenda for Italy, the leading network promoting impact investing in Italy.
Harish H Hande
In 1995 Harish founded SELCO-India, a social enterprise that aims to introduce solar energy solutions for the benefit of the poorest. For his work in SELCO Harish received numerous awards, including the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award (established in 1958, considered to be a sort of Nobel Prize for Asia). Harish is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and has a PhD in engineering applied to solar energy from the University of Massachusetts Lowell (USA).
Andia Chakava
Investment Director, Graca Machel Trust.
Has over 15 years’ experience in fund management. She was instrumental in the setup of (Old Mutual Investment Services and Alpha Africa Asset Managers) in Kenya, where she served in each as MD. She is also the co-author of a 2017 research called ‘Growth Barriers Affecting Female Entrepreneurs in East Africa’. She was one of the first female fund managers in the region. In 2014, she was nominated most influential woman in Africa financial services category by CEO magazine and in 2018 was awarded Diversity and Inclusion Business Executive Champion in Kenya.
