Solar King, a supplier of off-grid photo voltaic power merchandise in Africa and Asia, has secured a $70 million fairness funding led by LeapFrog Investments. That is an extension of the $260 million Sequence D around the photo voltaic firm introduced this April, led by BeyondNetZero, the local weather funding enterprise of Basic Atlantic and M&G Investments’ Catalyst and Arch Rising Markets Companions. Subsequently, Solar King closed its Sequence D spherical at $330 million and consequently, has raised over $550 million in debt and fairness since its inception.
Many African households and communities would not have entry to inexpensive and dependable photo voltaic expertise, limiting their potential to generate their very own electrical energy and lowering their reliance on grid-based energy. Direct-to-consumer, pay-as-you-go (PAYG) photo voltaic distribution networks are provided by companies corresponding to Solar King, enabling households and people to get electrical energy for reasonable.
Solar King claims it’s the largest of its sort on the planet. In response to the corporate, it offers photo voltaic power to 165,000 houses monthly in eight African international locations – and in Kenya, the place it has been working for greater than a decade, greater than 1 in 5 individuals use of its product for mild and energy, price 22 million. Kenyans are nonetheless serving as we speak. On a bigger scale, Solar King factors out that since its founding in 2007 by chief government officers Patrick Walsh and Anish Thakkar, its merchandise have offered mild and energy to 95 million individuals throughout the worldwide market. Africa and Asia, together with Cameroon, Mozambique, and Togo, are three international locations that it just lately expanded to. The photo voltaic power firm additionally offers greater than $500 million in photo voltaic buy finance by means of a community of greater than 20,000 discipline brokers, 36% of whom are ladies.
“We’re proud that LeapFrog has invested in Solar King to develop entry to power utilizing renewable solar energy,” mentioned Thakkar. “LeapFrog brings a wealth of expertise that meets the wants of consumers within the international locations the place we work to make photo voltaic power options accessible to everybody.”
Solar King claims to be worthwhile and has grown its enterprise by 95% year-over-year since its first Sequence 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 that may energy home equipment corresponding to fridges and measure enterprise presence. This extension, which incorporates $38 million in extra capital funding, will capitalize on this effort. The extension additionally consists of extra secondary funding that can be used to completely exit all of Solar King’s earlier institutional buyers, the corporate mentioned in an announcement.
Solar King’s founders will retain voting management. as a part of the deal, LeapFrog, which in Might invested in African fintech large Interswitch, joined Solar King’s board, which now consists of 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, protected and dependable electrical energy entry to growing customers in Africa and Asia. The corporate’s off-grid photo voltaic techniques are crucial to filling the rising accessibility hole of electrical energy and make sure that these growing international locations keep away from carbon dioxide emissions and dangerous well being results ensuing from power sources corresponding to diesel mills, wooden burners and kerosene,” mentioned Karima Ola, accomplice at LeapFrog Investments.
“Via modern fee fashions, Solar King ensures that buyers don’t contribute to the preliminary prices of a clear power transition, permitting them to leap on to much less carbon intensive consumption. We’re delighted to accomplice with Solar King for the following part of their spectacular progress journey.
