Key Facts Operating four mini-grids in Uganda and Rwanda 230kW mini-grid on Kitobo Island, Uganda powers 650 homes, where previously only nine received power from a diesel generator Raising a $250m impact fund leveraging a first loss $50m soft commitment from the UNFCCC’s Green Climate Fund Absolute Energy is an off-grid utility developer that educates…
key facts 6500+ For every dollar invested by Aavishkaar, its portfolio companies have raised 4x follow-on capital Ranked in top three global social impact funds alongside Dell Foundation and Omidyar Network based on number of investments in 2017 (source: Tracxn) Aavishkaar Venture Management Services (AVMS), part of the Aavishkaar-Intellecap Group, is a multi-product financial services…
Technology firm and SF partner Sure Chill joined UK Prime Minister Theresa May on a 4-day trade mission across three African markets last week, to promote their technology and build trade and investment links. Sure Chill has developed a unique new cooling technology approved by the World Health Organisation that ensures a refrigerator remains perfectly…
Results Based Financing (RBF) programmes have attempted in the past to provide funding for minigrids, but many of them have struggled to disburse the funding effectively. African Minigrid Developers Association’s (AMDA’s) members have participated in many of these programmes and collated their experience of what has worked and what has not worked into a policy…
The Democratic Republic of Congo represents one of the most challenging frontier markets to work in, with no or poor access to energy. In August 2017, we supported UK company Bboxx, alongside the UK Government, USAID and Power Africa, to pilot their off grid solution in the city of Goma, on the eastern border of the…
Read the business first approach report on gender inclusion (PDF 25.1MB).
GroFin is an impact investment fund manager focused on small and growing businesses serving low-income communities. This latest report provides an overview of what they have accomplished so far and explains their plans for 2018. Shell Foundation partnered with GroFin in 2004 to co-create an innovative integrated solution business model to address the needs of…
Grant-makers, donors, impact investors and development financiers must combine to leverage the $33 billion funding that energy enterprises require to meet Africa’s basic energy needs by 2030. Larger, more agile “blended” finance vehicles – providing early-stage funding at the right time at the right scale – are needed to enable this. The Portuguese city of…
SF’s partnership with Open Capital Advisors is helping off-grid enterprises in Uganda access local debt finance, public partnerships to serve low-income households and international support to enhance energy for productive use. Download the 2018 market map (PDF 1.2MB).
Decentralised renewable power generation and distribution systems such as mini-grids, are important tools for providing power to the roughly 600 million Africans currently living without access to modern energy services. For African Governments to meet the Sustainable Energy for All Goal of Universal Access to Energy By 2030, it is estimated that 40 percent of…