About

Only one in ten people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has access to electricity, making the vast African state one of the most energy-undersupplied countries in the world. Many Congolese families are forced to rely on air-polluting and expensive kerosene lamps and diesel generators for power, risking their own health and damaging the environment to access heat and light.

Malango Washikala and Iongwa Mashangao know firsthand the difficulty of life without electricity. Growing up in a remote, off-grid village in DRC, they were forced to flee their homes when civil war broke out. After earning scholarships to the University of Dar es Salaam, the two childhood friends returned to DRC determined to improve access to clean, renewable and affordable energy for Congolese households with little or no grid connectivity. In 2013 they created the Altech Group and set themselves the ambitious target of eliminating energy poverty in DRC by 2030.

Altech supplies people throughout DRC with affordable energy products with their highly popular solar-powered lighting leading the way – paid for in manageable instalments. To deliver these products, the company has recruited a network of ‘Solar Ambassadors’, training them not only to promote and sell goods and services but also to respond to customer inquiries and maintain and repair products. What started as a two-man operation just 10 years ago today employs more than 3,500 ambassadors covering 23 of the country’s 25 provinces – a feature that few other companies or entities can match in a country the size of Western Europe. With the help of a nationwide network of shops and warehouses, the Altech team is able to deliver over 10,000 much-needed products every month.

Our support

Altech has developed to a stage where they are able to adapt to the needs of the market and their clients, navigating the day-to-day challenges of running a business in DRC. These include not only the country’s low rates of electrification and its nascent renewables market, but widespread political instability, a complicated and inconsistent legal system and, as a result, deep-seated wariness among foreign investors.

Based on meaningful advice from investors that encouraged Washikala and Mashangao to approach the GET.invest Finance Catalyst, their journey to accessing finance began. Starting with a simple request for the contacts of potential funders, Altech eventually learned of the full range of support the Finance Catalyst offers to sustainable energy initiatives. The Finance Catalyst provided legal support in reviewing a shareholder agreement and ensuring its terms were comprehensible to Altech.

The GET.invest Finance Catalyst has continued to support Altech’s fundraising at a larger scale. It introduced the company to impact firm SIMA and investment manager Triple Jump – connections that resulted in signed debt finance facilities and €5,460,000, respectively. The Finance Catalyst also reviewed Altech’s grant proposal to the Humanitarian Grand Challenge, which awarded the company a grant of almost €900,000.

The outcome

Thanks in part to the support of the GET.invest Finance Catalyst, Altech is now firmly established as the DRC’s market leader in clean energy products. It is also the country’s only off-grid energy provider with nationwide reach. Since Washikala and Mashangao founded the company in 2013, Altech has created more than 4,000 jobs, and distributed more than 420,000 units of their solar powered products and 15,000 cooking stoves. Households using the company’s products have seen their monthly kerosene purchases fall by an average of 61%, which saved an estimated €58,000,000 on energy costs, and are helping to prevent the unnecessary generation of approximately 470,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over the lifetimes of the products. These factors combined have positively impacted the lives of more than 1.5 million Congolese.

Washikala and Mashangao have grown no less ambitious over time. Still determined to achieve their ultimate aim of eradicating the lack of access to energy in DRC, they have set Altech the goal of reaching a million cumulative customers In the process, they are proving that Congolese entrepreneurship lights the way to their country’s renewable energy future and access to energy without limitations.

Disclaimer: This story was last updated in November 2023.