OPINION
Venture capital was built to chase unicorns. Then markets reward them once they emerge. But unicorns alone can’t stop climate shocks. They can’t regenerate soils, and they can’t redistribute power to communities living on the frontlines of crisis. If we keep funding climate innovation as if we are hunting for the next hot tech company, we will keep getting isolated wins, instead of the systems change we need to meet the climate challenge.
The climate crisis demands something different. Something more holistic. Something more interconnected. It demands entrepreneurship that works like a forest, not like the quest to find a unicorn.
That means funding ecosystems. It means supporting the connective tissue between entrepreneurs, communities, investors, and governments. It means treating trust, relationships, and collective learning as legitimate outcomes, not as “soft” by-products. Because resilience doesn’t emerge in isolation from stand-alone ventures. It grows when ventures are linked up inside living systems.
Moving beyond single ventures
For the past decade, climate entrepreneurship has largely borrowed the tools of traditional venture capital. The focus has been on single businesses, evaluated on individual milestones: revenue, patents, avoided CO2 or jobs created. These measures are important, but they don’t add up to resilience on their own. As a result, too often venture capital rewards short-term outputs that look good in a report but do little to transform the structures that hold economies and communities in place.
This narrow model is especially ill-suited for the climate challenges. Early-stage financing rewards speed and scale, not collaboration and endurance. It prioritises commercial returns above social and environmental ones. And it leaves entrepreneurs competing for resources rather than collaborating to build shared capacities.
At Climate KIC, we know this tension well. We have used these tools while also critiquing their limits. What we have learned is clear: the climate crisis cannot be tackled venture by venture. The systemic nature of the problem demands a systemic model of entrepreneurship.
What systemic entrepreneurship looks like
Systemic entrepreneurship does not replace venture building; it reimagines the context around it. Instead of backing ad hoc projects, funders support networks of entrepreneurs. Instead of chasing individual “heroes,” we nurture collective heroism. Instead of short bursts of output, we build capacities and relationships that endure.
At its heart, the shift is from transactional to transformational thinking: from isolated deals to ecosystem dynamics. It is about financing portfolios that blend commercial innovation with social impact, circularity, and resilience, and about weaving together the fragmented efforts of start-ups, entrepreneur support organisations, public authorities, and investors into something that behaves like a living system: adaptive, connected, and resilient.
Just as forests draw their resilience from the root systems beneath them, the strength of systemic entrepreneurship lies in the trust, relationships, and shared capacities that anchor ventures and allow them to weather shocks.
The story on the ground
Consider Nairobi. Through our Innovation Cluster, ten start-ups piloted upstream solutions in partnership with informal waste workers. Gjenge Makers is turning plastic waste into durable, low-cost bricks for housing. LeafyLife is converting used cooking oil into affordable clean fuel. Ecomak Recyclers is scaling circular plastics solutions while integrating female waste pickers into their operations. Collectively, these start-ups supported 792 informal workers in 2024 and cut emissions by an estimated 15 kilo tonnes CO₂eq: the annual equivalent of four large wind turbines.
In Bengaluru, our Innovation Cluster supported ventures such as PadCare Labs, which has pioneered sanitary waste recycling technology, and AmplePac, which is building refill-and-return packaging systems for consumer goods. Alongside five other ventures, they supported 135 informal workers and adopted measurable strategies to strengthen social inclusion and gender equity.
The ventures highlighted represent just a fraction of each cluster’s work. In both Nairobi and Bengaluru, the clusters not only fostered collaboration between ventures, but also focused on market shaping, government partnerships, behaviour change, understanding financial and policy barriers, and building capacity to strengthen the broader ecosystem.
This approach works beyond circular economy ventures. In Tanzania, our Adaptation Innovation Cluster brought seven youth-led organisations together in Arusha for training on climate policy, negotiation, and storytelling, using CARE International’s Toolkit for Youth on Adaptation & Leadership. The outcome was not a single product launch, but a cohort of leaders equipped to influence national climate adaptation strategies and mobilise their communities.
As part of our work on sustainable mobility in Slovenia, start-ups collaborated with city authorities to pilot solutions for decarbonising transport systems. These included shared e-mobility platforms and digital tools to optimise public transit. Here, entrepreneurship was embedded into policy experimentation, giving ventures a chance to shape systemic transitions rather than operate on the margins.
And in Ireland, start-ups such as Agrolinera and SpaceCrop connected their solutions to challenges identified across the country's agrifood system. This showed how portfolios of interventions can be precisely matched to the local climate priorities defined by governments and communities.
These are not isolated success stories. Across our portfolio, Climate KIC connects more than 10,000 ventures, 400 partners, mentors, and investors in over 80 countries. Programmes like Climathon, ClimateLaunchpad, and ClimAccelerator have scaled thousands of climate solutions while also creating a knowledge base of tools, mentorship, and impact metrics. When pieced together, these assets - and those of partners - form something closer to a dynamic network rather than a collection of projects. Like a mycelium, they weave individual nodes into an ecosystem capable of adaptation, resilience, and scale.
Why funders matter now
These examples are only the beginning. They are seeds. To grow them into forests, funders must operate differently to create real impact:
- Look beyond mere quick wins that are nice on paper but don’t have lasting impact.
• Urgently start backing more of the thoughtful, meaningful, patient work of building
relationships, trust, and long-term capacity.
• Fund boldly in overlooked communities.
• Treat uncertainty and collective learning as legitimate outcomes.
• Pair care with urgency by supporting innovations today that show real potential to
shift systems.
There are signs of readiness. Mission-driven philanthropies and progressive public funders are already experimenting with portfolio approaches, blended finance, and ecosystem-building. They see that lasting resilience will not come from stand-alone wins but from ecosystems of ventures and communities working together.
The choice in front of us
Systemic entrepreneurship is coming, whether funders embrace it or not. The only question is whether we act early enough to shape it. If we do, the funding landscape in ten years could look very different. Capital could flow into interconnected initiatives that regenerate ecosystems, redistribute power, and create the conditions for communities to thrive in the face of climate shocks.
But if we hesitate, if we keep treating resilience as a line item in a business plan rather than a property of whole systems, we risk watching promising solutions wither in isolation. Resilience is not built on unicorns. It is built like a forest: slowly, collectively, and with deep roots. The sooner we finance it that way, the sooner communities can stand strong against the storms to come.
The good news is that we are not alone in this thinking - others are thinking along the same lines and taking action, and we need everyone’s participation. This is not about competition, but a growing groundswell of support to reimagine how we do entrepreneurship in service of climate action.
The climate crisis gives us no time for hesitation. Funders who act now will shape the future. Those who don’t will be left behind.
Chris Roe, Entrepreneurship, Solutions & Ventures Orchestrator at Climate KIC
OPINION
Venture capital was built to chase unicorns. Then markets reward them once they emerge. But unicorns alone can’t stop climate shocks. They can’t regenerate soils, and they can’t redistribute power to communities living on the frontlines of crisis. If we keep funding climate innovation as if we are hunting for the next hot tech company, we will keep getting isolated wins, instead of the systems change we need to meet the climate challenge.
The climate crisis demands something different. Something more holistic. Something more interconnected. It demands entrepreneurship that works like a forest, not like the quest to find a unicorn.
That means funding ecosystems. It means supporting the connective tissue between entrepreneurs, communities, investors, and governments. It means treating trust, relationships, and collective learning as legitimate outcomes, not as “soft” by-products. Because resilience doesn’t emerge in isolation from stand-alone ventures. It grows when ventures are linked up inside living systems.
Moving beyond single ventures
For the past decade, climate entrepreneurship has largely borrowed the tools of traditional venture capital. The focus has been on single businesses, evaluated on individual milestones: revenue, patents, avoided CO2 or jobs created. These measures are important, but they don’t add up to resilience on their own. As a result, too often venture capital rewards short-term outputs that look good in a report but do little to transform the structures that hold economies and communities in place.
This narrow model is especially ill-suited for the climate challenges. Early-stage financing rewards speed and scale, not collaboration and endurance. It prioritises commercial returns above social and environmental ones. And it leaves entrepreneurs competing for resources rather than collaborating to build shared capacities.
At Climate KIC, we know this tension well. We have used these tools while also critiquing their limits. What we have learned is clear: the climate crisis cannot be tackled venture by venture. The systemic nature of the problem demands a systemic model of entrepreneurship.
What systemic entrepreneurship looks like
Systemic entrepreneurship does not replace venture building; it reimagines the context around it. Instead of backing ad hoc projects, funders support networks of entrepreneurs. Instead of chasing individual “heroes,” we nurture collective heroism. Instead of short bursts of output, we build capacities and relationships that endure.
At its heart, the shift is from transactional to transformational thinking: from isolated deals to ecosystem dynamics. It is about financing portfolios that blend commercial innovation with social impact, circularity, and resilience, and about weaving together the fragmented efforts of start-ups, entrepreneur support organisations, public authorities, and investors into something that behaves like a living system: adaptive, connected, and resilient.
Just as forests draw their resilience from the root systems beneath them, the strength of systemic entrepreneurship lies in the trust, relationships, and shared capacities that anchor ventures and allow them to weather shocks.
The story on the ground
Consider Nairobi. Through our Innovation Cluster, ten start-ups piloted upstream solutions in partnership with informal waste workers. Gjenge Makers is turning plastic waste into durable, low-cost bricks for housing. LeafyLife is converting used cooking oil into affordable clean fuel. Ecomak Recyclers is scaling circular plastics solutions while integrating female waste pickers into their operations. Collectively, these start-ups supported 792 informal workers in 2024 and cut emissions by an estimated 15 kilo tonnes CO₂eq: the annual equivalent of four large wind turbines.
In Bengaluru, our Innovation Cluster supported ventures such as PadCare Labs, which has pioneered sanitary waste recycling technology, and AmplePac, which is building refill-and-return packaging systems for consumer goods. Alongside five other ventures, they supported 135 informal workers and adopted measurable strategies to strengthen social inclusion and gender equity.
The ventures highlighted represent just a fraction of each cluster’s work. In both Nairobi and Bengaluru, the clusters not only fostered collaboration between ventures, but also focused on market shaping, government partnerships, behaviour change, understanding financial and policy barriers, and building capacity to strengthen the broader ecosystem.
This approach works beyond circular economy ventures. In Tanzania, our Adaptation Innovation Cluster brought seven youth-led organisations together in Arusha for training on climate policy, negotiation, and storytelling, using CARE International’s Toolkit for Youth on Adaptation & Leadership. The outcome was not a single product launch, but a cohort of leaders equipped to influence national climate adaptation strategies and mobilise their communities.
As part of our work on sustainable mobility in Slovenia, start-ups collaborated with city authorities to pilot solutions for decarbonising transport systems. These included shared e-mobility platforms and digital tools to optimise public transit. Here, entrepreneurship was embedded into policy experimentation, giving ventures a chance to shape systemic transitions rather than operate on the margins.
And in Ireland, start-ups such as Agrolinera and SpaceCrop connected their solutions to challenges identified across the country's agrifood system. This showed how portfolios of interventions can be precisely matched to the local climate priorities defined by governments and communities.
These are not isolated success stories. Across our portfolio, Climate KIC connects more than 10,000 ventures, 400 partners, mentors, and investors in over 80 countries. Programmes like Climathon, ClimateLaunchpad, and ClimAccelerator have scaled thousands of climate solutions while also creating a knowledge base of tools, mentorship, and impact metrics. When pieced together, these assets - and those of partners - form something closer to a dynamic network rather than a collection of projects. Like a mycelium, they weave individual nodes into an ecosystem capable of adaptation, resilience, and scale.
Why funders matter now
These examples are only the beginning. They are seeds. To grow them into forests, funders must operate differently to create real impact:
- Look beyond mere quick wins that are nice on paper but don’t have lasting impact.
• Urgently start backing more of the thoughtful, meaningful, patient work of building
relationships, trust, and long-term capacity.
• Fund boldly in overlooked communities.
• Treat uncertainty and collective learning as legitimate outcomes.
• Pair care with urgency by supporting innovations today that show real potential to
shift systems.
There are signs of readiness. Mission-driven philanthropies and progressive public funders are already experimenting with portfolio approaches, blended finance, and ecosystem-building. They see that lasting resilience will not come from stand-alone wins but from ecosystems of ventures and communities working together.
The choice in front of us
Systemic entrepreneurship is coming, whether funders embrace it or not. The only question is whether we act early enough to shape it. If we do, the funding landscape in ten years could look very different. Capital could flow into interconnected initiatives that regenerate ecosystems, redistribute power, and create the conditions for communities to thrive in the face of climate shocks.
But if we hesitate, if we keep treating resilience as a line item in a business plan rather than a property of whole systems, we risk watching promising solutions wither in isolation. Resilience is not built on unicorns. It is built like a forest: slowly, collectively, and with deep roots. The sooner we finance it that way, the sooner communities can stand strong against the storms to come.
The good news is that we are not alone in this thinking - others are thinking along the same lines and taking action, and we need everyone’s participation. This is not about competition, but a growing groundswell of support to reimagine how we do entrepreneurship in service of climate action.
The climate crisis gives us no time for hesitation. Funders who act now will shape the future. Those who don’t will be left behind.
Chris Roe, Entrepreneurship, Solutions & Ventures Orchestrator at Climate KIC
KANDY, Sri Lanka (PAMACC News) – At the Nyéléni Global Forum in Sri Lanka, women from across the world issued a bold call: feminism must be placed at the heart of the Common Political Agenda and Action Plan (CPAA). They warned that food sovereignty and climate justice cannot be realized without dismantling patriarchy and recognizing women’s contributions to sustaining life and communities.
Delivering the intervention on behalf of the Women’s Assembly, Susan Owiti of La Via Campesina stressed that women globally continue to shoulder the double burden of sustaining households and communities while being excluded from decision-making. “Women’s labour in food production is systematically exploited. The liberation of women will lead the transformation we seek—one based on equality, care, and solidarity,” she told delegates.
The Assembly highlighted glaring omissions in the draft CPAA, including silence on gender-based violence, patriarchy within movements, and the realities faced by women in conflict zones. Delegates noted that even within progressive spaces, women encounter exclusion and violence. “We cannot claim to fight for liberation out there if we reproduce domination in here,” the Assembly declared, pointing to incidents of disrespect and harassment reported during the forum itself.
In a show of internationalist solidarity, women expressed deep support for struggles against oppression worldwide, from Palestine to Afghanistan. They drew clear links between the exploitation of women’s labour, imperialism, and resource plunder. The Assembly insisted that feminism is not an optional perspective but a political necessity in confronting systems of domination.
Central to their intervention was the demand to recognize women’s historic and ongoing roles as seed keepers, fisherfolk, and custodians of biodiversity. Women condemned the corporate capture of seeds, water, and natural resources, stressing that these processes criminalize seed saving, destroy ecosystems, and deepen inequality. They called for decisive action to protect peasant and Indigenous seed systems, resist destructive extractivism, and defend territories from land and water grabbing.
The women also underscored the urgency of reorganizing and valuing care work, which underpins all economies but remains invisible and unpaid. They demanded policies to guarantee equal access to land, income, education, and healthcare, alongside strong public services and renewable energy systems that prioritize people over profit. Strengthening feminist education—rooted in popular, Indigenous, and grassroots perspectives—was identified as critical for building systemic change.
Sophie Ogutu, a Kenyan feminist with the World March of Women, reminded delegates that patriarchy is a global system deeply embedded in capitalism: “The end of capitalism alone will not end patriarchy. But the end of patriarchy will end capitalism, because global economies depend fundamentally on women’s unpaid and underpaid labour.”
This analysis reinforced the Assembly’s insistence that dismantling patriarchy is inseparable from struggles for food sovereignty and climate justice. The women urged the forum to treat feminism not as a separate agenda item but as a cross-cutting principle informing every aspect of the CPAA—from democracy and people’s economies to land, health, and climate.
The Assembly concluded with a powerful affirmation: “Without feminism, there is no food sovereignty. Systemic transformation—now and never!”
NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) – A €45 million partnership has been launched by the IKEA Foundation and SNV to reimagine how food and energy systems work together in Eastern Africa.
The five-year initiative, known as the Power for Food Partnership, will roll out in Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Kenya with the aim of boosting resilience, improving livelihoods, and driving systemic change at the intersection of regenerative agriculture (RA) and the productive use of renewable energy (PURE).
Breaking silos to build resilience
For decades, food and energy systems in the region have developed in isolation. Farmers tested sustainable practices on one side, while renewable energy projects expanded separately on the other. This fragmentation limited their combined impact.
“This partnership is an opportunity to think differently about how systems can work together, and who gets to shape them,” said Annemieke Beekmans, Director of Technical Expertise at SNV. “Beyond a technical overlap, the focus on nexus points between regenerative agriculture and productive use of renewable energy, through better coordination, smarter, more inclusive investment and the primacy of stronger local leadership are vital to scaling outcomes. In a time of increasing fragmentation, values-driven partnerships like this are a way to build the kind of enabling environment that long-term, inclusive and sustainable development actually requires.”
Farmers at the frontline of climate change
The need for such integration is urgent. In Uganda, climate models predict that shifting rainfall patterns could reduce maize yields nationally by up to 10 percent in the near future. Across the region, most rural households remain off-grid, leaving farmers unable to irrigate crops, process harvests, or preserve produce.
While technologies like solar-powered irrigation, cold storage, and decentralized agro-processing already exist, uptake is hampered by affordability challenges, policy barriers, and weak infrastructure. For women and youth, who already face systemic barriers in accessing land, credit, and decision-making spaces, the challenges are even steeper.
Locally-led solutions at the core
The Power for Food Partnership is designed to address these gaps through locally-led innovations and systemic collaboration. By bringing together communities, governments, civil society, and private sector actors, the initiative will create an enabling environment where regenerative agriculture and renewable energy can reinforce each other.
“This partnership is rooted in trust and shared purpose. It’s about standing alongside communities who are leading change from within. By connecting regenerative agriculture and renewable energy, we’re supporting locally driven innovations that respond to real needs and lived experiences. We’re proud to partner with SNV and local leaders in building systems that are resilient, inclusive, and shaped by those most affected,” said Marilia Bezerra, Chief Programme Officer of IKEA Foundation.
A new chapter of collaboration
The partnership builds on earlier collaboration between IKEA Foundation and SNV dating back to 2019, which piloted approaches and generated learning in the same four countries. That experience laid the groundwork for this larger, longer-term commitment.
With this investment in its first phase, the Power for Food Partnership signals a bold new effort to bridge fragmented systems, tackle structural inequalities, and empower communities to build resilience in the face of climate change.
