This fresh round of equity investment will accelerate d.light’s plans to impact the lives of hundreds of millions of families living without reliable energy access.
d.light, a leading innovator of solar, lighting and sustainable products, announced today that it had raised USD 15 million of equity financing from existing investors, led by Inspired Evolution, with FMO supporting as well. This latest round of funding, in addition to the USD $10 million raised recently from Proparco in May, brings the total to USD 25 million raised this year by the company, underscoring the confidence investors have in the industry and d.light despite the pandemic. This capital raise will bolster the company’s plans to continue growing its Pay-Go consumer finance business in key markets across Africa.
“We are grateful for the continued support of our investors during these uncertain times. Thanks to our focus on financial discipline and operational excellence, d.light minimised the pandemic’s impact to our business. We are now in a strong position to accelerate our plans to expand our Pay-Go operations and enter new product categories and markets in the near future,” said d.light co-founder and CEO Ned Tozun.
Inspired Evolution led the USD 15 million round, supported by Evolution II, Shell New Energies, FMO, Norfund, Swedfund, and KawiSafi Ventures. On the investment, Wayne Keast, Co-Managing Partner of Inspired Evolution said, “We are pleased to support the company with additional capital for growth and to secure the support from many of the existing shareholders during these difficult Covid-19 times.”
After reaching its founding goal of impacting 100 million lives by 2020, d.light has embarked on another ambitious journey to impact 1 billion lives by 2030 with transformative products. The company provides customers with a broad portfolio of sustainable solutions, ranging from portable solar lanterns to financed solar home systems and related aspirational products, such as smartphones and televisions. d.light’s award-winning products are sold through over 30,000 outlets.
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About d.light
Founded in 2006 at Stanford, d.light is a global leader in solar energy, dedicated to providing the most reliable, affordable and accessible solar lighting and power systems for people living in the developing world. d.light provides distributed solar energy to households and small businesses in 70 countries, impacting the lives of over 100 million people. Our mission is to transform 1 billion lives with sustainable products. For further information about d.light, visit: https://www.dlight.com and follow us on twitter.com/dlightdesign & https://www.facebook.com/dlightdesigninc.
About Inspired Evolution
Inspired Evolution was established in 2007 as a specialised African investment advisory business dedicated to two investment themes: clean energy infrastructure-type development and project finance investments; and energy and resource efficiency growth equity investments, as well as the value chains that support them. Inspired Evolution, with offices in Cape Town, London, Abidjan, Nairobi and Mauritius, advises two investment funds, Evolution One and Evolution II. Its investment territory covers the sub-Saharan African region. Inspired Evolution has been involved in more than 1,500 MW of renewable energy infrastructure generation projects over the past decade, and is pursuing a pipeline of new clean energy projects and resource efficiency opportunities across sub-Saharan Africa. For more information, visit www.inspiredevolution.co.za
About Shell New Energies
Shell’s New Energies business was created in 2016 and focuses on two main areas: new fuels for transport, such as advanced biofuels and hydrogen, and power, which includes low-carbon sources such as wind and solar. Within the power portfolio, Shell is also actively pursuing commercial opportunities to invest in energyaccess solutions in Africa and Asia. The New Energies business is supported by Shell Ventures B.V., the corporate venture capital arm of Royal Dutch Shell PLC (“Shell”).
About the other Consortium partners
Norfund is the Norwegian Development Finance Institution. Norfund’s objective is to contribute to sustainable commercial businesses in developing countries through providing equity, other risk capital, and loans to companies in selected countries in Southern, Eastern and Western Africa, South-East Asia and Central America. With a portfolio of USD 2.4bn, Norfund invests in three main sectors: clean energy, financial institutions, and agribusiness. www.norfund.no
Swedfund is the Swedish Development Finance Institution with the mission to reduce poverty through sustainable investments in developing countries. Swedfund's business model rests on three main pillars: impact on society, sustainability and financial viability. Since 1979 Swedfund has been engaged as an active, responsible and long-term investor in more than 260 companies worldwide.
KawiSafi Ventures is a $100m private equity impact fund anchored by Green Climate Fund and designed to finance enterprises with core business models that address the off-grid solar ecosystems in East Africa to provide universal access to energy to people located beyond the foreseeable grid connection and at the bottom of the economic pyramid. Lack of electricity and high kerosene use will be addressed through affordable clean household solar energy solutions such as solar lanterns, solar home system and solar mini-grids.
