{"id":59999,"date":"2025-08-05T20:17:30","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T20:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/rihanna-fund-to-support-women-led-climate-startups-africa"},"modified":"2025-08-05T20:57:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T20:57:16","slug":"rihanna-fund-to-support-women-led-climate-startups-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/rihanna-fund-to-support-women-led-climate-startups-africa","title":{"rendered":"Rihanna Fund to Support Women-Led Climate Startups Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Gather Ventures, an impact investment firm founded by Kenyan-born Jo Opot, has launched a climate-focused fund dedicated to supporting women-led startups across Africa. Backed financially by Rihanna\u2019s Clara Lionel Foundation, the initiative underscores a commitment to climate resilience and economic empowerment for African women.<\/p>\n<p>Established in 2021, the Gather Impact Fund was created with a mission to bolster female entrepreneurship in the face of climate challenges. Since its inception, the fund has allocated nearly 80% of its capital to businesses led by women tackling environmental issues.<\/p>\n<p>Gather Ventures employs a flexible financing model that caters to the diverse needs of early-stage enterprises. This approach includes grants, equity investments, loans, and working capital\u2014ensuring that entrepreneurs receive the right type of support at the right moment in their growth journey.<\/p>\n<p>The fund primarily targets sectors where women already play a significant role, such as agriculture\u2014the largest employer of women on the continent. At the same time, it encourages female participation in high-growth sectors like technology and construction, where their presence remains underrepresented.<\/p>\n<p>Looking ahead, Gather Ventures intends to scale its portfolio within the next 18 months, with the ambition of investing in 25 African-led climate startups by 2026. Through this initiative, the firm aims to empower women entrepreneurs to build sustainable, resilient businesses that drive both environmental and economic progress across Africa.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Lesotho<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. Gather Ventures, an impact investment firm founded by Kenyan-born Jo Opot, has launched a climate-focused fund dedicated to supporting women-led startups across Africa. Backed financially by Rihanna\u2019s Clara Lionel Foundation, the initiative underscores a commitment to climate resilience and economic empowerment for African women. Established in 2021, the Gather Impact Fund was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":59998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-59999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-culture-and-art","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Rihanna Fund to Support Women-Led Climate Startups Africa - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gather Ventures, an impact investment firm founded by Kenyan-born Jo Opot, has launched a climate-focused fund dedicated ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/rihanna-fund-to-support-women-led-climate-startups-africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rihanna Fund to Support Women-Led Climate Startups Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gather Ventures, an impact investment firm founded by Kenyan-born Jo Opot, has launched a climate-focused fund dedicated ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/rihanna-fund-to-support-women-led-climate-startups-africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-05T20:17:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-05T20:57:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/08\/sm_1754410695.969078.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"572\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/rihanna-fund-to-support-women-led-climate-startups-africa#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/rihanna-fund-to-support-women-led-climate-startups-africa\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Rihanna Fund to Support Women-Led Climate Startups Africa\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-05T20:17:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-05T20:57:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/rihanna-fund-to-support-women-led-climate-startups-africa\"},\"wordCount\":238,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/rihanna-fund-to-support-women-led-climate-startups-africa#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/08\/sm_1754410695.969078.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"culture and art\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/rihanna-fund-to-support-women-led-climate-startups-africa#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/rihanna-fund-to-support-women-led-climate-startups-africa\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/rihanna-fund-to-support-women-led-climate-startups-africa\",\"name\":\"Rihanna Fund to Support Women-Led Climate Startups Africa - 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