Swedish investor Trine confirms a €5 million investment in Solarise Africa, which provides solar energy to commercial and industrial customers. The investment will enable its expansion into several African countries.
A new investor is interested in Solarise Africa. It is Trine, an impact investment platform. The Gothenburg (Sweden) based investor will inject a total of €5 million into Solarise Africa in several tranches. “The first round of debt financing (…) will unlock the potential to meet the demand for renewable energy and will finance five solar projects in the regions of South Africa and Kenya,” explains Trine.
In addition to these two Eastern and Southern African countries, the investment will provide solar energy to commercial and industrial customers in Rwanda and Ghana. According to the Swedish investment platform, demand for on-site renewable energy assets is growing rapidly as companies face rising energy costs and want to improve the sustainability of their operations. On-site micro grids are capital intensive and building owners and operators have few options for energy self-sufficiency.
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Trine’s investment will enable “project deployment and market share expansion in countries currently operational. Currently, Solarise Africa has a presence in Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda, Uganda and Ghana, where several projects have been deployed, and our portfolio continues to grow rapidly,” says Jan Albert Valk, Solarise Africa’s CEO and co-founder.
The Johannesburg-based company finances and installs solar photovoltaic systems. The companies that benefit from this clean energy simply pay one electricity bill per month. To finance its expansion in Africa, Solarise raised 6.5 million euros in 2020, as part of a fund-raising exercise in which Proparco, the subsidiary of the French Development Agency (AFD), and EDFI ElectriFI (Electrification Financing Initiative), a European Union financing mechanism, participated.
Jean Marie Takouleu
