Beyond the Grid Solar Fund

Debt : October 2017

BTGSF is a 5-year closed-end investment fund that provides loans to solar companies in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Amount

€ 3,185,582.00

Type of investment

Debt

Development impacts

  • Local economic growth
  • Financial inclusion
  • Access to basic services & goods
  • Fight against climate change and preservation of natural resources

Beneficiary locations

Sub-Saharan Africa: Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda

Investment field

Investment Companies & Funds

Activity

Infrastructure fund

Organisation

Beyond the Grid Solar Fund

Domicile

US

The Beyond The Grid Solar Fund is a debt fund focused on companies active in the off-grid / grid-deficit space mainly across East Africa. Borrowers of the BTGSF will include solar product distributors, PAYGO (pay-as-you-go) solar companies and solar project developers. One of the barriers currently faced by these companies is lack of access to debt finance, which is critical to achieve growth and scale. BTGSF’s loans are aimed at solar companies with positive track record (generally 3-years) that need capital to scale.

Management

BTGSF is managed by SunFunder, a solar energy finance asset management company with a mission to unlock capital for solar energy projects in emerging economies. Their strategy is fully aligned with BIO’s mandate i.e. providing access to energy and being inclusive. SunFunder’s vision statement is ‘driving a global energy transformation to solve energy access and climate change’.

Development impacts

  • Local economic growth

    Provision of over 80 loans in the coming 3 years, with an average of around USD 1,3m, and a tenor of up to 4 years.

  • Financial inclusion

    This investment contributes to the access to financial services of both enterprises and the general population. Target companies get access to financing in a situation where commercial banks are not able to do so given their strict regulations. The general population gets access to financing through the PAYGO approach of the SHS companies that are actually acting as micro-finance institutions (by pre-financing customers on their investment in electricity infrastructure)

  • Access to basic services & goods

    Access to energy: electricity

  • Fight against climate change and preservation of natural resources

    Impact on both energy poverty and climate change, by the generation and use of solar energy (on-grid + off-grid)

Made possible through this investment

Thanks to the direct funding from BIO, the following second-line investments have been made possible.

Astonfield

Kenya

BioLite

Kenya

d.light

India, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda

Greenlight Planet

India, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda

M-KOPA Solar

Kenya, Uganda

New Light Africa

Kenya

Off Grid Electric

Côte d'Ivoire, Rwanda, Tanzania

Orb Kenya

Kenya

PEG Africa

Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana

PowerGen

Kenya

Questworks

Kenya

SolarKiosk

Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania

SolarNow

Uganda

SolarWorks

Mozambique

Village Infrastructure Angels

Honduras

Vitalite Zambia

Zambia

Yellow Door Energy

Jordan

View more of our investments in this region

TowerCo of Africa

Infrastructure

TowerCo of Africa

12,000,000.00

  Uganda

  09/01/2024

  Debt

SIMA Commercial & Industrial Solar Green Bond

Infrastructure

SIMA Commercial & Industrial Solar Green Bond

10,000,000.00

  Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa

  29/12/2023

  Debt

ACEP Group

Financial Institutions

ACEP Group

 4,824.00

  Niger

  28/11/2023

  Subsidy

Alterfin

Investment Companies & Funds

Alterfin

5,000,000.00

  23/10/2023

  Debt

EA Foods Ltd

Enterprises

EA Foods Ltd

 10,448.00

  Tanzania

  09/10/2023

  Subsidy

Poa! Internet

Enterprises

Poa! Internet

13,543.00

  Kenya

  24/08/2023

  Subsidy

Gebana Burkina Faso

Enterprises

Gebana Burkina Faso

 3,000,000.00

  Burkina Faso

  20/07/2023

  Debt

ASA Tanzania

Financial Institutions

ASA Tanzania

7,000,000.00

  Tanzania

  19/07/2023

  Debt

Alterfin

Investment Companies & Funds

Alterfin

 21,500.00

  11/07/2023

  Subsidy