GET.invest Finance Readiness Support: Meet the first companies as the pilot launches its second and third rounds
10 August 2022 | Locally owned and managed companies are key to sustainable and universal energy access, as they are close to the end customers and play an important role in a just energy transition. Hence, GET.invest launched the pilot phase of its Finance Readiness Support last November implemented by eight advisory firms (see list below), aiming to unlock financing for early-stage local clean energy companies. The first advisory round started in February 2022 with a cohort of 13 companies from East, West, and Southern Africa. Of these, half are on the UN’s list of least-developed countries (UN LDCs) and two-thirds are majority owned or managed by women.
For instance, one of the companies receiving support is Millennium Engineers, a 100% women-owned and women-led company. This Tanzanian firm replaces hazardous kerosene fishing lamps with affordable leased solar LED lanterns while employing local women to operate lantern charging hubs that simultaneously power a solar fish drying facility. Another client in the cohort is Energy+, the only locally-owned solar PAYGO company in Mali. In the field of e-mobility, BODAWERK from Uganda merges energy, mobility and agriculture, and aims to develop Africa’s first battery Gigafactory. KYA Energy Group from Togo is another interesting client which delivers Solar Home Systems (SHS) to hospitals and schools. See below for the complete list of companies supported by the GET.invest Finance Readiness Support.
The different requirements and market segments of the service’s comprehensive list of companies warrant a wide range of expertise. Depending on the current need of each business, the advisory firms customise the technical assistance offered to each client, such as corporate restructuring, financial modeling, market positioning, operations and process optimization, credit risk management, among others. Beyond this in-depth business development advisory, each company also receives access to finance advisory on their investment strategy, pitch deck and teaser documentation, introduction to relevant financiers and transaction advisory. The market segments included are manifold: while more than half of the enterprises are dedicated to productive use of energy, the other segments covered are PAYGO-enabled SHS, renewable energy-powered mini-grids, e-mobility, and commercial and industrial (C&I).
The GET.invest Finance Readiness Support was designed and developed together with core partners from the industry, namely Alliance for Rural Electrification (ARE), Global Distributors Collective (GDC), GOGLA, Clean Cooking Alliance (CCA), and ENERGIA. Hence, five of the PAYGO SHS and Productive use of Energy companies from this first cohort additionally benefit from the GOGLA ELEVATE service, a GET.invest supported programme that has been designed to complement the Finance Readiness Support.
The GET.invest Finance Readiness Support is part of the programme’s efforts to assist projects and companies with access to finance. With the Team Europe One Stop Shop for Clean Energy Investments, GET.invest furthermore powers a single entry point for information about investment and finance access.
GET.invest expects to welcome up to 24 additional clients, including 8 from Mozambique, in the second and third rounds of the Finance Readiness Support this year. The full rollout of the service is planned for late 2023.
These are all 13 companies supported by the GET.invest Finance Readiness Support: BM Solutions (Benin); Deevabits, Baridi (Kenya); Energy+ (Mali); Digitech (Mozambique); ICE Commercial, Ventura (Nigeria); HOBUKA (Rwanda); Millenium Engineers (Tanzania); KYA Energy Group (Togo); Bodawerk, All in Trade (Uganda) and Natfort Energy (Zimbabwe)
These are the 8 advisory firms supporting the GET.invest Finance Readiness Support: Catalyst Off-Grid Advisors, Energy 4 Impact, GFA Consulting Group, GreenMax Capital Advisors, Inensus, KPMG, Open Capital and Persistent.