I&P Ecosystems Secures C3 Funding to Convert African LP Interest into Fund Commitments

I&P Ecosystems, the learning and advisory arm of Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P), has received funding from the Catalytic Capital Consortium (C3) to build a Limited Partner (LP) Conversion Funnel that unlocks capital for underfunded African fund managers. I&P is headquartered in Paris with offices across Africa, and I&P Ecosystems is delivering the project with FrontEnd Ventures.

The grant is one of seven announced by C3 today under its Accelerating Supply and Deployment program. The funded projects are building platforms, tools and pilots to speed up the supply and deployment of catalytic capital worldwide, with an emphasis on replicable frameworks that strengthen the wider field.

The I&P Ecosystems project focuses on emerging African venture capital and small-and-medium-enterprise (SME) funds. It aims to move a small cohort of African limited partners from initial interest to actual fund commitments, creating a replicable model that can be scaled to additional LPs over time.

Urmi Sengupta, chair of the C3 Project Advisory Board, said there is “a tremendous unmet need for financing that prioritizes impact,” and that the funded projects show innovative leaders developing solutions that reach beyond individual transactions.

C3 is an investment, learning and market development initiative that promotes the greater and more effective use of catalytic capital. It was established in 2019 by the MacArthur Foundation, Omidyar Network and the Rockefeller Foundation, and ten more funders joined in 2025.