Spark + Africa Fund

Subsidy : June 2023

BIO has granted USD 350 K to the technical assistance facility of the Spark + Africa Fund, an impact investment fund aiming to develop and scale an inclusive and sustainable clean cooking industry.

Amount

$ 350,000.00

Type of investment

Subsidy

Beneficiary locations

Africa: Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda

Investment field

Investment Companies & Funds

Activity

DD.35.110 Production of electricity: biomass; biofuel

Organisation

Spark + Africa Fund

Website

http://www.sparkafricafund.com

Domicile

Luxembourg

More investments in

Spark + Africa Fund

Debt € 2,444,790.00 (2022)

Spark+ Africa Fund is an impact investment fund aiming to develop and scale an inclusive and sustainable clean cooking industry. The Fund will invest in companies that manufacture and distribute clean and energy-efficient cooking solutions in base-of-the-pyramid markets in sub-Saharan Africa, such as biomass stoves, advanced biomass fuels, ethanol and biogas systems. Spark+ will also invest in distributors and consumer finance providers, such as off-grid solar companies and microfinance institutions that extend their services to clean cooking products.

Spark+ aims to directly address the critical investment gap in the clean cooking sector and achieve a range of societal benefits, including improved respiratory health, greater gender equality, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation, industrial and economic development, and poverty reduction

Technical assistance facility

The technical assistance facility will deliver a range of types of advisory support, as well as training and capacity building, to improve the commercial performance and development impact outcomes of the fund’s investees.

Expected impact

Spark+ aims to contribute to at least 11 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which is a reflection of the multidimensional developmental impact and sustainability objectives of the Fund, and the potential for impact associated with clean cooking solutions generally.

Some of the notable portfolio-level Development Indicator Targets include:

4.5 million households adopt clean cooking or other energy access products, with an average of a 15% reduction/savings on cooking fuel cost per customer
3 million customers receive financing via credit schemes with MFIs, PAYG solutions, or other financial or business model-related mechanisms that reduce upfront costs historically prohibitive to customer adoption
2.5 million female customers receive financing via credit schemes with MFIs, PAYG solutions, or other mechanisms
15.9 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) avoided

Made possible through this investment

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

BURN Manufacturing

Kenya

BURN Manufacturing is a global leader in the design and manufacture of high-quality, life-improving cooking solutions for the mass market in sub-Saharan Africa.