Solar King, a supplier of off-grid photo voltaic vitality merchandise in Africa and Asia, has secured a $70 million fairness funding led by LeapFrog Investments. It’s an extension of the $260 million Series D round the photo voltaic firm introduced this April, which was led by BeyondNetZero, the local weather investing enterprise of Basic Atlantic and M&G Investments’ Catalyst and Arch Rising Markets Companions. Thus, Solar King has closed its Collection D spherical at $330 million and in consequence, raised over $550 million in debt and fairness since its inception.
Many African households and communities can not entry inexpensive and dependable photo voltaic expertise, limiting their skill to generate their electrical energy and lowering their reliance on grid-based energy. Direct-to-consumer, pay-as-you-go (PAYG) photo voltaic distribution networks are supplied by companies like Solar King, enabling households and people to get electrical energy on a budget.
Solar King asserts to be the biggest of this type globally. In line with the corporate, it has delivered photo voltaic vitality to 165,000 houses monthly throughout eight African nations — and in Kenya, the place it has operated for over a decade, over 1 in 5 individuals use its product for gentle and energy, accounting for 22 million Kenyans served to this point. On a a lot bigger scale, Solar King identified that since its founding in 2007 by chief government officer Patrick Walsh and Anish Thakkar, its merchandise have offered gentle and energy to 95 million individuals all through its African and Asian markets, together with Cameroon, Mozambique, and Togo, three nations it just lately expanded into. The photo voltaic vitality firm has additionally offered greater than $500 million in photo voltaic buy finance via a community of over 20,000 area brokers, 36% of whom are ladies.
“We’re proud that LeapFrog is investing in Solar King to develop entry to vitality with renewable solar energy,” stated Thakkar. “LeapFrog brings a wealth of expertise assembly the wants of shoppers within the nations the place we’re working to make photo voltaic vitality options simply accessible to everybody.”
Solar King claims to be worthwhile and has grown its enterprise by 95% year-over-year because the preliminary Collection D funding 9 months in the past. We acknowledged in April that a big portion of the preliminary funding can be used to develop its PAYG options and introduce bigger setups able to powering home equipment like fridges and scale the enterprise’ presence. This extension, which incorporates $38 million of further major funding, will capitalize on this effort. The extension additionally has an extra secondary funding which can be used to exit all of Solar King’s prior institutional traders fully, the corporate stated in an announcement.
Solar King’s founders will proceed to carry voting management. As a part of the deal, LeapFrog, which in Might invested in African fintech giant Interswitch, joins Solar King’s board, which now contains Basic Atlantic and M&G Investments, in addition to Prabha Sinha, the corporate’s first investor.
“Solar King is main the way in which in offering sustainable, secure and dependable electrical energy entry to rising customers in Africa and Asia. The corporate’s off-grid photo voltaic methods can be important in filling the rising electrical energy accessibility hole and making certain these rising nations keep away from the carbon dioxide emissions and detrimental well being impacts that consequence from vitality sources like diesel mills, wooden burners and kerosene,” stated Karima Ola, companion at LeapFrog Investments.
“By modern cost fashions, Solar King ensures that buyers don’t bear the upfront price of a clear vitality transition, permitting them to leapfrog on to much less carbon-intensive consumption. We’re happy to be partnering with Solar King for the subsequent stage of their spectacular progress journey.”
