A thank you to our investors in 2020

The end of the year is a traditional time for reflection and the events of 2020 are still difficult to take in, let alone distil into a post. However, when we look back at what at one point we thought could be a disastrous year, we have much to celebrate and be thankful for, and we wanted to share this with all our supporters and investors. 

The impact of COVID 19

-   At the beginning of the year, things were going from strength to strength for the off-grid solar market in Africa and our investors were consistently filling each of our bond offers, allowing us to fund innovative solar businesses who are supplying pay as you go solar home and business systems across sub-Saharan Africa.

-    When the extent of the COVID-19  crisis was becoming clear, we took the decision to restrict our lending to existing solar businesses only, enabling them to refinance their obligations under more favourable terms to help them with their cash flow and improve their resilience in dealing with COVID 19 related challenges

-    This year, we successfully filled 28 refinancing bonds, many of which filled in a matter of hours.

Energise Africa returns to normal operations

-   In recent months, we announced a return to normal lending and since then we have continued to successfully fill all our bond offers, including a recent £1 million raise for candi which filled in around 11 days to help SMEs in South Africa switch to solar power

-   Thanks to our network of committed investors, we’ve achieved amazing things to date

-   Over £18.5 million invested

-   Bringing solar energy access to more than 500,000 people

-   Mitigating 110,000 tonnes of CO2 annually

-   Along with our sister platform, Ethex, we have as a collective group of investors raised more than £100 million to help create a positive impact in sub-Saharan African and the UK

-   We have successfully blended match funding from partner organisations, UK aid, Good Energies Foundation and Virgin Unite with investor money to help even more homes and businesses access life-changing solar energy.

Scaling up and recognition of Energise Africa’s catalysing role in supporting action on climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals

-   Energise Africa was named one of P4G’s Scale-up Partnerships in 2020 which will allow us to rapidly scale our business over the next 2 years - creating significantly more impact when it comes to climate change and the UN SDGs across sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.

-   As a UK aid-funded platform, the UK Government recognised the role that Energise Africa has to play in making it easier for people to invest in clean energy projects in Africa. Energise Africa was also shortlisted for a 2020 Ashden Award and was also highlighted as a best in class example by the World Resources Institute in a recent report.