About

Only 12% of Burundi’s households have access to electricity – one of the lowest access rates in sub-Saharan Africa. Most households rely on kerosene or candles for light. However, the country has two resources that can drive a change: abundant solar energy potential, and enthusiastic young people who are ready to re-imagine Burundi’s energy landscape.

ReNewGen Burundi started up in 2017 to connect renewable energy generation with this new generation of young people – as their name hints to. The company supply stand-alone solar energy kits to rural households, farms and shops, working through a unique distribution model. First, they put a strong focus on upskilling groups of young people to distribute the products. Second, the young sales agents connect with households through village savings and loan associations (VSLAs), which are fixtures of collective economic empowerment in rural Burundi. And third, the company have begun partnering with microfinance institutions to make the solar energy kits available to VSLA members through microloans, a form of financing people already use.

Our support 

In 2022, GET.invest Burundi provided training on business development to a group of early-stage solar companies in the country. ReNewGen Burundi were among these companies, and having started on their path of development, they requested further assistance from the GET.invest Finance Catalyst to raise funds.

In the course of the advisory support provided, it became clear that ReNewGen Burundi had identified a unique approach in working with Burundi’s active VSLA networks. At the same time, the company began to see the advantages in working with microfinance institutions. Microfinance partners would allow ReNewGen Burundi to avoid the burdens and risks of providing bank-like functions, such as pay-as-you-go. With guidance from the GET.invest advisors, the company learned how to evaluate microfinance institutions and soon formed partnerships with two of them.

Despite the benefits of these connections, the company’s strengths had become difficult to present to investors, who were reluctant about the model. ReNewGen Burundi were aiming for larger-scale investment and faced challenges in preparing a clear business plan and pitch deck, as well as fine-tuning internal policies to ensure robust supplier contracts. The GET.invest Finance Catalyst advised the company in developing all of these aspects, joined strategic meetings with investors and reviewed the company’s proposals for funding opportunities.

The outcome

The support enabled ReNewGen Burundi to secure three important opportunities, totaling EUR 703,414. These include a grant from the World Bank’s Solar Energy and Clean Cooking Fund, with the potential for an additional loan in a future round, a highly competitive grant from EEP Africa, and a grant from USADF.

With the funding raised, ReNewGen Burundi have procured additional solar home products and are training more young sales agents to take them to villages far and wide. Agents are making fresh connections with VSLAs, which are typically run by women in rural communities who meet weekly to make purchasing decisions with their pooled funds. Their options now include solar lighting for their households and for enterprises such as coffee farms. As a future next step, ReNewGen Burundi are interested in adding other economically beneficial solar products such as irrigation pumps and cooling-as-a-service – ambitions that will require using the team’s finance know-how to pursue more significant equity investment.

Disclaimer: This story was last updated in January 2025.