Off-grid solar energy company Sun King has received $70 million equity investment in an extension of Series D round, led by purpose investment firm LeapFrog Investments.
With its affordable solar power system for domestic use, Sun King is changing how people gain electricity access across Africa and Asia. So far the off-grid solar company has provided light and power to more than 95 million people who previously lacked access to reliably electricity.
At the same time they prevented more than 24 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions. The solar home systems are more affordable and sustainable than buying kerosene or installing new power grid lines.
LeapFrog Investments Partner Karima Ola said the off-grid solar systems will be vital in filling the growing electricity accessibility gap and ensuring these emerging countries avoid the carbon dioxide emissions and detrimental health impacts that result from energy sources such as diesel generators, wood burners and kerosene.
“Through innovative payment models, Sun King ensures that consumers don’t bear the upfront cost of a clean energy transition, allowing them to leapfrog directly to less carbon intensive consumption,” said Ola.
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This recent investment is an extension of Sun King’s initial $260m Series D, which was led by General Atlantic’s BeyondNetZero and M&G Investments in April this year. The extension includes $38m of additional primary investment which will support the company’s plans to make consumer-financed solar power available to the more than 1.8 billion consumers across Africa and Asia who do not have access to electricity.
It comes at a time when increasing global energy prices and rising food costs is widening the electricity gap.
The 2022 edition of the World Bank’s Tracking SDG 7: The Energy Progress Report shows that the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, including lockdowns, disruptions to global supply chains and diversion of fiscal resources to keep food and fuel prices affordable, have affected the pace of progress toward the Sustainable Development Goal 7 (energy access).
Advances have been impeded particularly in the most vulnerable countries and those already lagging in energy access. The World Bank says nearly 90 million people in Asia and Africa who had previously gained access to electricity, can no longer afford to pay for their basic energy needs.
Going forward
Tis Series D extension also includes additional secondary finance to complete the exit of all of Sun King’s previous institutional investors. Sun King’s founders retain voting control and as part of the transaction LeapFrog will join the Board, which now includes representatives from other Series-D investors General Atlantic, M&G investments and Prabha Sinha, the company’s first investor.
Sun King says it operates the worlds largest direct-to-consumer, pay-as-you-go solar distribution network. It delivers solar to 165,000 homes every month across eight countries in Affrica. In Kenya, where they have operated for more than a decade, just more than 20% of the population now use their services. The company says they have achieved 95% year-over-year revenue growth since closing the Series D round in April this year.
It has expanded to Mozambique, Togo and Cameroon, delivered 24MW of solar generated capacity to three million homes in the last year and plans to extend to new countries in the new year.
Source: esi-africa
