I Am a Climate Tech Founder in East Africa With Traction. Why Is No Investor Looking at Me

DEAR JADE

I run a climate technology company in Kenya. We have 18 months of revenue, a paying customer base, and unit economics that work. I have been pitching to impact funds and institutional investors for eight months. I have had conversations but no term sheets. I am not a pre-revenue startup. Why is no one moving?

THE ANSWER

Eight months of conversations without a term sheet is a data point. It tells you something specific about the gap between your company and what the funds you are pitching are actually mandated to do.

The institutional impact fund universe in East Africa is smaller than it appears. Funds with East Africa mandates are either too early-stage or too late-stage. The growth-stage gap between $500,000 and $3 million in annual revenue is structurally underfunded in the region. If you are in that range, you are not being rejected. You are falling between mandates.

The second issue is data format. Institutional investors, particularly DFI-backed funds, need your financials, impact metrics, and governance documentation in a format their investment committees can process. If your data room is a Dropbox folder with PDFs, you are adding friction to a process that is already slow. A clean, structured data room with audited or reviewed financials, a cap table, and a one-page impact thesis reduces the time between first meeting and term sheet by weeks.

The third issue is the introduction channel. Cold pitches to institutional funds in East Africa have a very low conversion rate. The deals that close come through DFI programme officers, accelerator alumni networks, and introductions from existing portfolio companies. If you are pitching cold, you are competing against warm introductions.

The hard truth: traction is necessary but not sufficient. The fund (those who manage the money and write you the check, needs to show its LP your company fits their mandate, their ticket size, and their exit horizon. If any of those three do not align, the conversation will stay a conversation.

JADE SAYS
In the next 30 days, map the five funds that have closed deals in your sector, revenue range, and geography in the last 24 months. Those are your actual targets. Everything else is a networking conversation.

You are not being rejected. You are pitching the wrong funds. And it's awful because you are likely working very hard to achieve your vision.

Please know, the mandate gap is structural, not personal. This is why we see many funds addressing this now as they've been unable to "meet the middle".

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DISCLAIMER: On the Radar is an intelligence publication. This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice.