Nairobi, Kenya: The Carbon Value Exchange (Cavex) has successfully closed its seed funding round, led
by E3 Capital with participation from FSD Africa Investments (FSDAi), to bring its digital carbon financing
platform to full commercial scalability. The E3 Capital and Cavex partnership will also provide an
opportunity for E3 Capital’s existing and future portfolio companies to access the carbon markets
through the platform.
E3 Capital’s commitment, through its second fund, the E3 Low Carbon Economy Fund (E3 LCEF I), will
support Cavex in launching a highly innovative platform that utilises digital technologies to increase
trust, equity, and transparency in the voluntary carbon markets. Cavex enables access to critical carbon
financing for small-scale projects across Africa, which currently struggle to participate given the high up-
front cost and time required for carbon credit validation, issuance, and brokerage.

Nick Hughes, CEO and Co-Founder, Cavex, said: “This investment will help us prove how digital
technology can open-up climate finance for many people, communities and projects that are displacing
or removing carbon. Cavex has the potential to scale in the way mobile money scaled 15 years ago when
Kenya and M-PESA spearheaded a global wave of digital finance. More widely, Africa has a huge role to
play in the evolution of carbon markets and in this context, it is critical that we find ways to distribute
climate finance more equitably and in a way that has real socio-economic impact.”
Cavex’s digital platform is an end-to-end solution that connects buyers of carbon credits directly with
high-quality projects from the Global South by leveraging innovative digital technologies to enable
validation of the integrity of project data, introduce visibility and full traceability in project activities, and
increase pricing transparency in what is to date a highly fragmented market. The platform aims to
positively impact the voluntary markets through two key designs, i) use high-quality data to lower
participation costs and increase integrity of carbon markets, and ii) reduce the reliance on
intermediaries and ensure a greater flow of revenues from the sale of credits back to project owners
and their customers.

Paras Patel, Managing Partner at E3 Capital, said: ‘Expanding access to carbon financing for smaller
projects is critical to driving inclusivity in the voluntary carbon markets. We are extremely pleased to
support Cavex and the work that the team is doing to unlock verification, trading and access to finance
for projects in Africa. By leveraging digital technology, Cavex’s platform brings integrity and price
transparency to the sector, supporting a much-needed market mechanism to ensure the equitable
distribution of climate finance.”

About Cavex
Cavex is a digital market and payments platform that connects buyers of carbon offsets to high-impact
projects in the Global South. The platform enables access to carbon financing for a wide range of small-
scale projects with a target to channel over $500m to projects by 2030. The innovative model drives
efficiencies by utilising digital technologies and data capture to minimise the time and cost required for
projects to validate and transact their carbon credits and ensures the majority of funds are channelled
directly to projects and beneficiaries.

About E3 Capital
E3 Capital is a leading investor in early-stage businesses enabling digitised, decentralised, and
decarbonised business models across Africa. Presently, E3 oversees two Pan-African funds: Energy
Access Ventures Fund with focus on energy access and productive use of energy and E3 Low Carbon
Economy Fund with focus on climate tech and digital infrastructure. The team at E3 is young, diverse
and committed to the future of the low carbon economy. With its core team based out of Africa, E3 is
uniquely positioned to help companies grow and scale, without compromising global sustainability
ambitions. The team backs forward-thinking entrepreneurs endeavouring to bridge the gap between
climate transition and growth in emerging markets with green energy as the enabler of these products
and services.

SOURCE: E3 Capital