Young African Catalysts

Young African Catalysts (YAC) is a tech-enabled venture ecosystem and venture fund that seeks to widen access to Africa's venture capital market by combining an invite-only investor community, vocational training and early-stage investing. It was co-founded by Luke Mostert, head of investments at the pan-African fund Future Africa, and Karl Nchite (CEO), a former investor and impact lead at Dutch impact fund Goodwell Investments, who set it up to encourage collaboration among young Africans working in the venture ecosystem.

The organisation operates three linked activities. The first is its private community, which within just over a year grew to include lead investors under the age of 35 from 50 leading African venture capital funds, with roughly 60 members sharing about 250 startup funding deals internally in a year. The second is the Aspiring YAC Fellowships, an eight-week curated programme taught by existing YAC members and aimed at young professionals seeking to enter venture capital or startup operator roles; the first cohort focused on VC. The curriculum covers pitch deck analysis, financial modelling, valuations and founder etiquette, with bi-weekly lectures, work on live deals from YAC's venture scouting wing and the YAC fund, and a capstone "Aspiring YAC Demo Day". Selected fellows are offered three-month internships with partner VC firms, with a mutual option for full-time employment afterwards. The third is Young African Catalysts Fund I, announced for launch in the second half of 2023, writing cheques of $25,000 to $100,000 into startups in talent development, the digital economy and green solutions.

Alongside these, YAC runs a venture scouting wing intended to give founders without established friends-and-family or VC networks access to its investor base.

Founding story

Luke Mostert, head of investments at Future Africa, and Karl Nchite, previously an investor and impact lead at Goodwell Investments, started YAC as a way to ignite collaboration among leading young Africans working in the venture ecosystem, initially as an invite-only community for under-35 professionals at leading African funds.

Business model

YAC combines a members-only investor community, a paid-for-talent pipeline in the form of vocational fellowships that route graduates into internships with partner VC funds, a venture scouting arm that channels deals to its network, and a venture fund (Fund I) making $25,000-$100,000 investments in early-stage African startups.

Sources describe the fund as making $25,000-$100,000 investments and the fellowship as feeding interns into partner VCs, but do not specify how YAC charges for these activities.

Traction

Within just over a year of its founding the invite-only community grew to include under-35 lead investors from 50 leading African VC funds, with around 60 members sharing over 250 startup funding deals internally. The co-founders have led more than a dozen startup investments in countries ranging from Egypt to Mozambique. The company exited a 15-month private pilot in April 2023.

Latest developments

In April 2023 YAC announced it had exited its private pilot, opened applications for the first, VC-focused cohort of the Aspiring YAC Fellowship, and said Young African Catalysts Fund I would launch in the second half of the year and was actively accepting investments.