AFRICA – Energy Access Ventures (EAV) has announced a follow-on investment in Solarise Africa, a pan-African clean energy and energy efficiency leasing company.
The round was led by French development finance institution, Proparco, which invested the US$4.74 million in quasi equity through the AFD Group EU-funded African Renewable Energy Scale-Up facility, alongside existing investors, EAV and EDFI ElectriFI, an EU-funded impact investment facility.
“We are grateful for the support we have received by EAV as our anchor investor and by the confidence our existing investors EAV and Electrifi have shown by this follow up investment. In addition, we are proud to welcome Proparco as a new investor in Solarise,” said Jan-Albert Valk, Co-founder and CEO, Solarise Africa.
“These investments will prepare us to further increase market share in our current countries of operation, as well as for future expansions into Africa. We look forward to growing our business with the support of our investors.”
Solarise Africa provides financing solutions to commercial and industrial businesses, enabling them to adopt clean energy systems, in particular solar, by limiting the upfront investment and providing manageable instalment payments and short payback periods.
“We are excited to continue to support the Solarise team as they grow their book and geographical footprint across Africa. The team has continued to demonstrate their bankability with successful deployments within a short period, strategic market expansion, pipeline development and agility in handling the COVID-19 crisis,” said Paras Patel, Partner, Energy Access Ventures.
“Solarise’s innovative financing solution remains compelling for many Commercial and Industrial clients across Africa grappling with frequent outages and fluctuating costs that affect productivity. Solarise’s solution allows C&I clients to adopt cleaner, cheaper, more reliable energy sources while focusing their resources on their core business.”
Solarise facilitates the uptake of more reliable and less costly energy sources, thereby optimizing the clients’ cost base and productivity. The company has operations across Kenya, South Africa and Rwanda where it has deployed several projects and continues to develop an extensive pipeline. The company will use the capital raised to fund project deployments and for further market expansion.
“Solarise represents a compelling opportunity for Proparco in the off-grid sector, as it develops a scalable and replicable model while offering tailor-made financing solutions for commercial and industrial clients, in markets where power outages are common,” said Johann Choux, Head of Equity Investments – Financial Institutions & VC, Proparco.
“We are proud to support this innovative project as a first co-investment alongside a strong provider such as EAV. It should remarkably contribute to avoid 250 000 tons of CO2 eq. per year by enabling African SMEs to start their road towards greener energy through the provision of a decentralized renewable energy production solution.”
“EDFI ElectriFI invested US$1.65 million in Solarise Series A equity round early 2019. Since then, the company has successfully rolled out its business plan, strengthening its team, commissioning its first project and expanding its pipeline through additional partnerships,” said Dominiek Deconinck, CIO at EDFI Management Company.
“Only one year after, we are delighted to back up the company with an additional US$2.5 million of mezzanine notes in a Series B round, welcoming Proparco to join the round.”
With this important milestone achieved, Solarise believes is excellently positioned to realise its ambitious plans, targeting over 150 MW of solar power assets, which correspond to reaching over 100,000 connections indirectly within the next 5 years, a very significant contribution to the electrification efforts in Sub-Saharan Africa.
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