Scaling Digital Innovation Funding for Clean Energy and Climate Resilience

Focus areas include market expansion, operational performance, investment readiness, gender and inclusion, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) compliance, and ecosystem and partnership strengthening.

This funding window provides milestone-based, non-repayable grant financing ranging from USD 250,000 to USD 400,000 over a maximum duration of thirty-six months. Grant disbursements are linked to the achievement of agreed technical, commercial, and operational milestones. In addition to financial support, enterprises will receive tailored technical assistance to strengthen business performance, product development, and market delivery. This includes guidance on business modelling, sales and marketing strategies, customer engagement, distribution models, after-sales service, digital development, and operational efficiency. Technical assistance also covers digital security, cybersecurity awareness, data protection, and digital risk mitigation, supporting enterprises in adopting security-by-design and privacy-respecting approaches, and leveraging open-source solutions and digital public goods where feasible.

Enterprises will benefit from venture-building and investment readiness support, which includes financial planning, governance, leadership development, and preparation for follow-on investment, including investor engagement and transaction advisory services. Support for gender and inclusion will help companies conduct gender needs assessments and design gender action plans to strengthen women’s participation as customers, workers, entrepreneurs, and decision-makers. ESG support provides tools, guidance, and training for environmental and social risk management, responsible business practices, and impact reporting. Furthermore, ecosystem and partnership support facilitates connections with innovation hubs, technical partners, investors, and regional stakeholders, enabling knowledge exchange, peer learning, and cross-border collaboration.

Target companies are growth-stage enterprises generating revenue with validated digital solutions in at least one African market. Eligible enterprises must demonstrate operational capacity for regional scalability and provide audited financial statements for the past two years, showing financial robustness and a sustainable position. Applicants should be legally registered private, for-profit entities, demonstrate alignment with the thematic focus areas including digital solutions for clean energy access, climate adaptation and mitigation, e-mobility, digital agriculture, and circular economy systems, and provide matching contributions in line with the programme’s one-to-one requirement. Compliance with national laws, international human rights, labour standards, environmental management, and data protection regulations is mandatory, including GDPR alignment and adherence to the African Union Malabo Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection where applicable.

Enterprises must demonstrate additionality, clear benefits to target communities, measurable improvements in access to energy and climate solutions, environmentally sustainable project design, creation of green jobs, and strengthened community resilience to climate-related shocks. Progress will be measured through expanded access to digital-enabled clean energy and climate solutions, improved enterprise performance and scalability, adoption of gender-inclusive business practices, replicability and regional scalability of digital solutions, and strengthened digital resilience.

For more information, visit AECF.