ElectriFI invests in Azuri Technologies

Azuri Technologies, one of the leading providers of pay-as-you-go solar products and services across sub-Saharan Africa, approached ElectriFI in 2017 to help structure and fund a new off-balance-sheet debt-financing facility. The main purpose is to provide working capital for the expansion of off-grid energy and service provision in East Africa. The facility is envisioned to reach USD 20 million and to be deployed in phases during 2018, the first of which was concluded in December 2017, thanks to ElectriFI financing.

Worth more than USD 4 million, the first phase also includes investments from Azuri and the impact investment platform TRINE. The first phase will be deployed in Kenya, providing financing to enable Azuri to supply its 'PayGo' solar systems, including its new satellite-TV solution, to tens of thousands more households across the country. Subsequent phases of the facility will expand to Azuri’s other key territories in East Africa, including Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

The PayGo sector is growing rapidly and its continued expansion requires access to substantial amounts of commercial debt capital. In fact, a recent global lighting study estimated that the sector's total financing needs amount to over USD 5 billion in the next five years. ElectriFI hopes that the success of its investment will help replicate off-balance-sheet debt instruments, attract new sophisticated lenders and address the huge funding needs of the sector.

Azuri’s CEO Simon Bransfield-Garth confirmed the completion of the first phase of the receivables financing facility as a major step for Azuri. He values the support of ElectriFI as a great vote of confidence in the opportunity in the African off-grid home solar sector as a whole and in Azuri in particular. The company is confident that this support will enable it to attract a new set of commercial investors to further expand the impact of its work.

This is a great example of ElectriFI’s mandate to support the off-grid energy sector in sub-Saharan Africa. ElectriFI’s investment is providing the necessary working capital for the company to reach out and impact tens of thousands of households, and is providing a structure that can bring more commercial investors to this sector.