by Mélanie Keïta, Co-Founder and CEO, Melanin Kapital
AGYLE alumna Mélanie Keïta is a French-Senegalese entrepreneur and impact finance expert working at the intersection of climate, capital, and African entrepreneurship. After ten years in investment and impact finance, she transitioned from funding ventures to building her own, co-founding four companies across fintech, media, philanthropy, and green construction. With Melanin Kapital, she launched Africa’s first digital “Carbon Bank,” enabling green SMEs to access finance and monetize their carbon reductions. Through Melanin Means Business, she fosters transparent, data-driven conversations about capital and scale in Africa. Her work is driven by one conviction: African solutions must be built, financed, and told by Africans themselves.
How would you describe your journey since AGYLE 2022?
When I joined AGYLE in 2022, Melanin Kapital was still at a very early stage. We had built the foundation of the platform and had only a small team, but we were still operating without a license and testing our business model through training products and early partnerships. At that point, we were really proving that there was demand for a different kind of financing solution for African SMEs.
Since then, the journey has accelerated. In 2023, GIZ provided us with our first lending facility of EUR 300,000, which allowed us to build a pilot and demonstrate the potential of becoming a digital bank for green SMEs. In 2024, we won second prize in the Ecobank Fintech Challenge, which opened the door to an MoU and partnership discussions with Ecobank around joint accounts and joint credit offers. These milestones helped validate our model and gave us the momentum to move from vision to execution. By 2025, we had reached another important stage in our growth and fundraising journey.
Was there a specific AGYLE experience that influenced your path?
There was not one single conversation or connection that changed everything, but AGYLE gave me something equally important: credibility and perspective. Being part of the programme in Germany helped us strengthen our presence and legitimacy in the German market. That mattered because many of our investors and strategic supporters are German institutions and stakeholders.
Beyond that, the programme brought practical learning that we were able to apply directly in our journey as founders. AGYLE helped us stay close to a network and ecosystem that later became relevant to our growth.
You grew up between Europe and Senegal and chose to build in Africa. What shaped that decision?
I grew up between Europe and Africa, and for as long as I can remember, I wanted to settle on the continent. It was both a personal and professional choice. Personally, it was about being closer to my family, my culture, and my roots. Professionally, it was about contributing to building solutions where they are most needed and most meaningful.
For me, building in Africa was never a fallback option. It was always the plan. Today, being able to create businesses on the continent feels like a dream fulfilled.
Through Melanin Means Business, you focus on data-backed founder stories and market analysis. Why is changing the narrative around African entrepreneurship so important now?
Too often, African entrepreneurship is still framed through the language of charity, aid, or impact alone. But what we see every day is that Africa is also a business case. African businesses can generate strong revenues, solve real market problems, and create attractive investment opportunities.
At a time when aid is decreasing globally, it is even more urgent to shift the narrative. We need to show that African entrepreneurship is not only something to support morally, but something to back strategically and commercially. That applies to international stakeholders, but also to Africans ourselves. Too often, we invest outside the continent instead of in our own economies. Melanin Means Business was created because I believe African solutions must be built, financed, and told by Africans themselves.
With Melanin Kapital, you are building the first “Carbon Bank” for African SMEs. What problem were you most determined to solve?
The problem we wanted to solve from day one was the cost and difficulty of financing for small businesses. Across Africa, access to capital remains expensive and complex, especially for SMEs that are trying to grow responsibly. At the same time, we saw that climate finance, green bonds, and sustainability-linked capital often came at a lower cost than traditional financing.
That created an opportunity. We realized we could help SMEs access more affordable funding while also supporting a more sustainable growth path for the continent. That is what led us to build Melanin Kapital as a digital Carbon Bank: a platform that helps green SMEs unlock finance and monetize their carbon reductions at the same time. It is about solving two challenges together, financial inclusion and climate transition.
Have you encountered obstacles as a female founder in climate finance and fintech?
Of course, there are challenges. Climate finance and fintech are still sectors where women are underrepresented, especially in leadership and capital allocation. As a female founder, there are moments when you have to work harder to establish legitimacy, to be heard in rooms where capital is being discussed, and to keep pushing forward even when the odds are not designed in your favor.
What has helped me most is clarity of mission. When you are deeply convinced about the problem you are solving, it gives you resilience. I have also learned the importance of building strong partnerships, staying rooted in data, and letting execution speak louder than assumptions. In the end, credibility comes from consistency, results, and the courage to keep building.
Is there something you would like to share with the AGYLE community?
This is our time as young leaders to show what we are capable of. The world is going through a difficult period, geopolitically, economically, and socially, and our generation cannot afford to be passive. We have both the opportunity and the responsibility to provide solutions for our communities.
I would encourage the AGYLE community to keep engaging with policymakers, the private sector, and one another. The challenges are real, but so is our capacity to respond to them. This is the moment to build boldly and act together.
Find Mélanie on LinkedIn
