C3 has launched EmpowerHer Climate, a six-month virtual accelerator program designed to support more than 30 startups developing climate adaptation solutions across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), following a grant from the Resilient Futures Fund (RFF), a global initiative backed by organizations including Amazon and the Visa Foundation.
The grant will fund the accelerator, which focuses on startups building solutions that strengthen the resilience of women and girls against the impacts of climate change. The program is open to both women-led ventures and startups with mixed-gender founding teams, with applications remaining open until August 31, 2026.
The Resilient Futures Fund (RFF) is managed by 2X Global with support from Amazon, Reckitt, Skoll Foundation, The UPS Foundation, and Visa Foundation. The fund aims to expand access to financing for climate solutions that are either led by women or deliver meaningful benefits to women and girls.
Through the EmpowerHer Climate accelerator, participating startups will receive hands-on support covering climate finance, solution design, go-to-market strategy, impact measurement, and gender-responsive leadership. The program will also include mentorship sessions with industry experts and investors, culminating in a regional Demo Day where startups will pitch their businesses to investors.
The top 10 startups, selected by an advisory committee, will receive a total of $150,000 in non-dilutive grant funding, allowing founders to retain full equity ownership. They will also gain the opportunity to showcase their ventures before regional investors during a Demo Day hosted in Egypt.
Medea Nocentini, Senior Partner at Global Ventures and Founder of C3, said that while the MENA region is among the world’s most vulnerable to climate change, startups developing solutions to address these challenges continue to face significant funding gaps. She noted that the accelerator is designed to bridge this gap by supporting ventures capable of creating measurable impact for women and girls across the region.
Jessica Espinoza, CEO of 2X Global, said the partnership with C3 aims to strengthen the women-centered climate innovation ecosystem across MENA by empowering intermediary organizations that can attract greater investment and help scale high-impact startups.
C3 is part of the Global Ventures platform, a UAE-based venture capital firm focused on investing in Series A startups across emerging markets in the Middle East and Africa. The firm manages $400 million in assets under management (AUM) and has completed more than 65 investments and seven exits across ten markets since its inception in 2018
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