Energy Access Ventures (EAV) has announce 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 USD equivalent of 4 million Euros 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.
EAV previously led the seed investment round in Solarise and is proud to continue to support the company as they lead the revolution towards smart distributed energy in Africa through innovative financing solutions.
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.
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.
“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. 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,” said Jan-Albert Valk, Co-founder and CEO, Solarise Africa.
Paras Patel, Partner, Energy Access Ventures, said: “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. 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.”
Johann Choux, Head of Equity Investments – Financial Institutions & VC, Proparco, said: “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. 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 USD 1.65m 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. Only one year after, we are delighted to back up the company with an additional USD 2.5m of mezzanine notes in a Series B round, welcoming Proparco to join the round,” said Dominiek Deconinck, CIO at EDFI Management Company said
“With this important milestone achieved, we believe Solarise 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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