Voices from the Field: Maelis Carraro, Catalyst Fund

For our ‘Voices from the Field’ series, we speak with Maelis Carraro, Managing Partner at Catalyst Fund, about her firsthand experience witnessing the disruptive impact of climate change, particularly in emerging markets. She shares her hope that within a decade, "gender-climate investing" will no longer be seen as a niche strategy but simply as smart investing.

How has applying an integrated climate and gender lens helped you to achieve a greater impact on climate?

At Catalyst Fund, we see gender and climate as deeply interconnected—women aren’t just victims of climate change; they’re key drivers of solutions. Applying a climate-gender lens helps us unlock underinvested opportunities and drive more sustainable, scalable impact for climate resilience in the long term.

Women are on the frontlines of climate adaptation solutions across key sectors, in agriculture, healthcare, waste collection, and nature restoration. Yet, they lack access to capital, networks and support to advance their businesses. Women-led startups receive less than 2% of venture capital in Africa, despite evidence pointing to the fact women-led businesses deliver stronger financial returns and more sustainable business models.

Therefore by investing in women and in sectors where women are agents of climate action, we help scale solutions that will lead to greater resilience, wider adoption, and ultimately, greater impact.

How this plays out in our portfolio:

• AgroSupply (Uganda) helps smallholder farmers—many of whom are women—access drought-resistant seeds through a savings-based model, tackling both financial and climate resilience​

• Bekia (Egypt) monetizes waste collection and actively integrates women into its workforce, giving them a stake in the circular economy​.

• Farm to Feed (Kenya), led by three women co-founders, supports women farmers to sell more of their odd-looking produce, and increase their incomes, while reducing food waste and Co2 emissions.   

How is climate and gender integration showing up in your fund?

At Catalyst Fund, gender integration isn’t just a box to check—it’s embedded at every level of how we operate, from who makes investment decisions to which founders we back, and even down to how end users benefit. It’s also not just about equity—it’s about making smarter, more effective investments that drive both financial returns and deeper climate impact given we are a thematic fund deeply focused on climate resilience.

1. At the Fund Leadership & Team Level

We are a women-led fund: Over 60% of our senior leadership is female, including our Managing Partner, CFO, and Head of Impact. 75% of our investment committee members are women, which actively helps counter biases in investment decision-making​.

We prioritize hiring women across all roles, ensuring diverse perspectives guide both investment decisions and portfolio support​.

Why this matters: Research shows women fund managers are more likely to invest in women founders—and this is exactly what we see in our own portfolio.

2. At the Portfolio Level (Who We Invest In & Support)

We invest in climate-resilient startups that:

• Are women-led or have gender-diverse leadership teams (our goal: 40% women-led startups).

• Design products/services that serve women as core customers. 

• Have a gender-inclusive approach to hiring and scaling.

Then we support them to scale and become category-leaders in their respective sectors.

3. At the End-User Level (Who Benefits from These Solutions?)

• We track gender-disaggregated data to ensure our investments truly reach women in climate-vulnerable communities 

In your own words, what opportunities does investing at the climate-gender nexus provide to investors?

Investing in the climate-gender nexus presents not just an impact opportunity, but a massive, untapped market opportunity across multiple investment categories:

Data shows this clearly:

• Women make up 43% of the agricultural workforce in Africa, yet they receive only 5% of agricultural extension services and less than 10% of climate finance​.

• Women make 80% of household financial decisions and are the primary adopters of climate adaptation solutions.

• Companies with diverse leadership are 1.7x more likely to be innovation leaders and 25% more profitable than their competitors, yet they are severely underfunded​.

• Women-led businesses outperform male-led ones by 63% in revenue per dollar invested, but they receive only 2% of total VC funding in Africa​.

• Women reinvest up to 90% of their income into their families and communities, compared to 30-40% for men, meaning climate investments in women have multiplier effects for local economies​.

• By 2030, gender-inclusive climate finance could unlock $28 trillion in GDP growth globally​.

Some examples of the impact our portfolio companies are creating already for women include:

• Mazao Hub (Tanzania) – Mazao Hub supports smallholder farmers—especially women—by providing climate-smart farming advice, market access, and financial tools via mobile technology. By addressing the gender gap in agricultural finance and education, Mazao Hub is helping women farmers build resilience against climate shocks​.

• Medikea (Tanzania) – Medikea is leveraging mobile technology to provide healthcare services to vulnerable populations. Women, who are disproportionately impacted by climate-related health issues (such as heat stress and waterborne diseases), now have easier access to telemedicine services, even in remote areas​.

• Enakl (Morocco) – Enakl is offering a shared mobility service in large urban cities, which takes cars off the roads and offers a safer alternative to many women workers. Their user base is currently primarily comprised of women. 

How did you get to where you are — what inspired the interest/ commitment to climate and gender strategies?

For me, this journey is deeply personal.

Climate change is the defining challenge of our time. I’ve seen firsthand how it disrupts lives, especially in emerging markets where entire communities depend on agriculture and other sectors exposed to impacts on natural resources. But what struck me most is both who bears the brunt of these challenges and who holds the keys to solutions on the ground: women.

I also saw a gap—many women founders are creating incredible solutions, but they aren’t getting funded.  I’ve spent years working with startups in emerging markets, seeing what works and what doesn’t. Year after year we saw the % of women getting funded either flatten or decline. This was very disheartening, even more so as a female-led fund. So we set clear intentions that as a fund, we would look hard for the best businesses advancing climate resilience innovations led by women.

Women pioneers like Wanjira Mathai at the Green Belt Movement showed how women's economic empowerment and environmental restoration are inseparable, and investors like Suzanne Biegel demonstrated the financial power of gender-lens investing long before it was mainstream. At Catalyst Fund, we are turning these learnings into practice. We set an initial target of 40% women-led businesses invested by the fund. Today, we're on track to meet that target and seeing excellent climate and financial performance across the portfolio. But my vision is that within a decade, we'll no longer speak of "gender-climate investing" as a niche strategy—it will simply be recognized as smart investing. By intentionally backing women as agents of climate resilience today, we're building the blueprint for how all climate finance should function tomorrow.

Find out more about Heading for Change’s investment thesis and portfolio companies