Holocene closes Southern Africa's first dedicated climate tech fund
After a decade building African climate companies from the ground up, one team is proving that impact and returns are not a tradeoff.
CAPE TOWN, June 2026
In 2015, Josh Romisher left Stanford Graduate School of Business with a conviction he couldn't shake: Africa didn't need to repeat the Global North's carbon-intensive path to development. The continent could leapfrog legacy infrastructure — centralised grids, combustion engines, extractive supply chains — and build cleaner, more resilient industries. It could generate climate impact and commercial returns at the same time. A decade later, that conviction is an investment vehicle built on hard won insights.
This month Holocene announced the final close of Holocene Ventures Fund I (HVF1), Southern Africa's first dedicated high-growth climate tech fund.
The milestone is more than a capital raise number. It is evidence that African climate innovation can attract global investor capital, generate real returns, and create measurable impact — all at the same time.
A thesis forged in the field
Romisher's conviction was earned, not inherited. After training as an investment banker at Credit Suisse and attending Stanford he moved to East Africa where he spent six years as a senior leader building two of the continent's most successful distributed solar companies: ZOLAi and Fenix International, later acquired by ENGIE Energy Access. Together, those companies reached nearly one million customers and created more than 2,000 jobs — all powered entirely by renewables.
Relocating to Southern Africa, Romisher saw a gap that hadn't closed: promising, local founders at the earliest stages, but not enough capital or hands-on operational support to get them to scale especially in a nascent sector such as Climate Tech.
To test this thesis, he became CEO of Stellenbosch University's LaunchLab leading it to the ranking of Africa's #1 university business incubator. During this time his team began investing in pan-African climate technology alongside the intelligence, optimism and resources of one of Africa's top research universities.
"It's clear we need to dramatically accelerate the pace of climate innovation in Africa," Romisher says. "The continent will double in size, urbanise, and begin to truly consume during our lifetimes. That can be seen as an impending climate catastrophe or a massive innovation opportunity. We choose to view it as the latter."
Early traction and results
In eighteen months of deployment, HVF1 has backed ten companies, created over 500 jobs, and achieved a 2x markup on invested capital while attracting $8 in follow-on capital for every $1 Holocene invested. Those numbers stand out anywhere in the world, let alone for a fund operating at the pre-series A stage in a new sector within a frontier market.
The portfolio reflects the breadth of the opportunity. FARO, a circular economy company built around technology-enabled supply chains for unused inventory, has scaled to $15M in trailing revenue and recently closed their Series A funding round. ScootHero is deploying 500+ electric motorbikes and 50+ battery-swap stations across South Africa, reshaping last-mile logistics in African cities. Yongeza, an e-mobility infrastructure company in Uganda, reached positive EBITDA within eighteen months and is fast becoming the backbone of the emerging East African electric vehicle ecosystem.
"What excites me most is not just that Holocene backed us early, it's that they got in the trenches with us," says Wahlied Cole, Founder and CEO of ScootHero. "When we needed help with go-to-market, they brought in operators. When we were hitting a ceiling on capital, they helped us unlock grants and asset finance. It wasn't just capital. It was a partnership built on real understanding of what African founders need."
A different model of founder support
Holocene's most distinctive feature isn't its thesis, it's how the team operates after writing a check. Each investment comes with at least twelve months of embedded, high touch support from a team of globally trained specialists: operators, executives-in-residence, and experts in revenue growth, fundraising, and grant writing.
The team spans South Africa, USA, Canada and Tunisia working directly alongside founders on product-market fit, financial strategy, and organisational development.
"I invested in Holocene because I believe climate innovation will be one of the defining challenges and opportunities of our generation, particularly in Africa.” says Jonathan Smit, exited founder and HVF1 investor. “What stood out to me was not just the investment thesis, but the quality of the team and the hands-on way they support founders. Holocene is helping build the ecosystem and companies that can deliver meaningful climate impact while creating lasting economic value."
The size of the opportunity
Africa will represent 25% of the global population by 2050. The continent holds 65% of the world's arable land and 50% of its renewable energy potential. Across energy, mobility, agriculture, and waste, African founders are building solutions that will define how the continent develops and, increasingly, solutions that are being exported globally.
HVF1's portfolio reflects this directly, with 60% of capital deployed into energy and mobility, the highest-impact sectors for African decarbonisation. Additionally 40% of portfolio companies have female founders or C-suite executives, compared to less than 1% of venture-backed companies globally. The team is executing important global narratives at the leading edge of African innovation.
What comes next
The final close marks the beginning of the fund's value-creation phase — the inspiring work of driving portfolio companies towards scale and exits. But the long-term ambition is larger than any single fund.
African climate tech has long been fragmented: limited follow-on capital, insufficient institutional attention, founders competing for scraps of impact-investing dollars that rarely came with operational support. HVF1 is making the case that this should be a standalone, commercially viable asset class. One with strong returns, real traction, and proven founder-market fit.
"We've shown that the intersection of climate impact and financial returns is real," Romisher says. "The task now is to scale that proof. We live the Stanford motto: change lives, change organisations, and change the world. That's not always easy, but it is deeply meaningful."
About Holocene
Holocene is Southern Africa's first specialized climate tech investment fund. The team combines deep African operating experience with climate sector expertise, and is dedicated to finding, backing, and scaling the next generation of African companies delivering breakthrough climate innovation and outsized returns.
Contact
Joshua Romisher, CFA
Holocene, General Partner
