KENYA – Greenlight Planet Inc., the largest provider of solar-powered home energy products in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, has secured $90 million in new funding to expand its Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) solar consumer financing business and consolidate its debt portfolio.
Under its Sun King brand, Greenlight Planet operates the largest direct-to-consumer PAYG solar distribution and service network in the world, having delivered over 1.3 million PAYG solar products to date in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Nigeria, expanding at a rate of over 65,000 new rooftop solar installations per month.
The company employs 1,250 full-time staff worldwide and over 5,500 sales agents, 30% of whom are women across areas of sub-Saharan Africa suffering from high levels of unemployment.
The new debt and equity investments were provided by European development finance institutions CDC Group, FMO and Norfund along with impact investors ResponsAbility, SIMA Funds, Symbiotics, Global Partnerships and private equity firm ARCH Emerging Markets Partners’ Africa Renewable Power Fund.
Of the total $90 million in committed funding, $69 million has been disbursed to the company with the balance to be drawn down as the company delivers additional solar-powered home energy systems with end-consumer financing to homes in Africa.
Greenlight Planet’s Sun King solar-powered home energy systems have a profound social impact for off-grid families around the world.
Sixty million individuals across 65 countries have used them to access clean renewable energy and this access to energy increases the time children spend studying, increases productivity for small businesses and reduces spending on old-fashioned energy products.
Sun King products have saved over $3.4 billion on fossil-fuel-based energy costs and reducing global greenhouse gas emissions by more than 14 million metric tons.
T. Patrick Walsh, Co-founder and CEO of Greenlight Planet said, “Greenlight Planet’s goal is to bring affordable, clean energy to every under-electrified household that needs it. After a decade of honing our solar technology and our solar distribution, installation and service strategy, we are now jumping the last hurdle to solve this global challenge, that being financial inclusion. We are expanding access to consumer financing, making basic solar power available to all people at a cost as low as $0.15 per day. We are delighted to work with CDC, Norfund, FMO, ResponsAbility, SIMA Funds, Symbiotics, Global Partnerships and ARCH to expand access to finance and access to energy.”
Geoffrey Manley, Director and Head of Energy Access and Efficiency at CDC Group added, “Our financing of Greenlight Planet provides our team with a great opportunity to support a company that is creating jobs and taking meaningful strides to fight climate change. We’re thrilled that our commitment promotes the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and helping to facilitate economic development across the African continent.”
William Barry, Managing Director at ARCH Africa Renewable Power Fund (ARPF) added, “ARCH ARPF is delighted to support Greenlight Planet’s continued growth as it delivers on its mandate to expand energy access across sub-Saharan Africa. Greenlight’s global market leadership in the off-grid solar sector positions the company strongly within ARPF’s expanding off-grid renewable energy portfolio, complementing our existing utility-scale, independent-power-producer development pipeline.”
Greenlight Planet is a social-mission, for-profit business that since 2009 has sold over 13 million of its Sun King solar home energy products to off-grid customers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
The company reaches customers through its direct-to-consumer distribution and financing network as well as wholesale partnerships with over 300 commercial and non-profit last-mile distributors ranging from mobile network operators to microfinance institutions to oil and gas companies to NGOs.
Greenlight Planet’s Sun King products are currently installed in over 65 countries and have served 60 million people.
Read Full Article Here
GetFundedAfrica’s mission is to uplift people and economies in Africa through entrepreneurship; helping companies find funding, grow, create jobs and solve society’s greatest challenges
GFA Attract And GFA Weekly Round Up
GFA Attract Series (VC Edition): Interview With Rob Eloff, Lateral Capital
In this episode of GFA-Attract, Debo discussed with South African born Rob Eloff the co-Founder & managing partner at Lateral Capital, a mission driven venture fund investing in early stage opportunities in Sub-saharan Africa to bridge the gap between capital and opportunities. Watch the exclusive Interview here
GFA Weekly Round Up September 14- September 18
In this week’s episode of the weekly round up we zoomed in on funding activity in Africa from September 14-15 Listen Here
Follow Us
“Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill.
