A software provider for Africa’s “pay-as-you-go” solar industry has raised $13.5 million
Summary
As small-scale renewable energy solutions have become mainstream across African households over the past decade, one of the key drivers has been easing the financial access barrier for end users. It’s a view that’s increasingly shared by renewable energy investors as well, as is evident from the latest investment in Angaza—a software provider that enables solar power device makers and distributors offer pay-as-you-go consumer services. The company also provides metering and monitoring technology that manufacturers of solar-powered products can embed in their devices and remotely power them based on customers’ payments status and, when necessary, collect usage and diagnostics data. “Distributors really need to digitize their operations and automate a lot of work-flows, be able to make mobile money payments and track those automatically—and there just wasn’t a complete software solution to do all of that,” she tells Quartz Africa. Solutions that boost access to electricity across Africa will prove particularly timely this year as latest data from the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) World Energy Outlook shows the number of people living without electricity in Africa is set to increase for the first time in eight years, largely due to Covid-19 related challenges.
Funding
Classifications
AskAI Classifications
LabelsLinked Companies
