Off Grid Electric announces funding round result
Off Grid Electric has announced the closing of a $16 million funding round led by SolarCity and Zouk Capital. The announcement comes on the heels of a $7 million funding announcement earlier this year, making Off Grid Electric one of the best capitalized companies in a sector that is quickly heating up. Along with SolarCity and Zouk Capital, Vulcan Capital, the private investment firm of Microsoft co-Founder Paul Allen, is making its second investment in Off Grid.
In Tanzania, Off Grid has delivered the highest solar adoption rates in the world, and has quickly become Africa's leading provider of solar energy as a service. For less than $0.20 per day, customers are able to enjoy 50 times more light than from traditional sources.
Off Grid Electric CEO Xavier Helgesen said, "We have the potential to change 1 billion lives by making solar accessible and affordable to everyone."
Leading the round is SolarCity Corporation, a U.S. solar power provider, and Zouk Capital, a London-based private equity fund that makes investments in companies which have a genuine environmental impact. "For us, this is a bet on a global solution." says Samer Salty, Zouk CEO. "Off Grid Electric has the first truly scalable solution for their customers. We see them as reaching a million customers quite soon. Furthermore, Off Grid Electric is leapfrogging the Western world and proving that distributed energy is highly scalable, financially viable, and immediately impactful to hundreds of millions."
SolarCity has made its second major investment in Off Grid Electric since participating in the company's funding round late last year. "Off Grid is expert at offering Africans what they want: clean, affordable electricity that can allow them to grow businesses, improve educational opportunity, and enrich their quality of life," said SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive. "Many people in Africa currently depend on inadequate kerosene lamps for power, and Off Grid knows how to give that market more light at less cost."
"Off Grid Electric has the team, the vision and the technology to deliver distributed power to thousands, and eventually, millions of homes and businesses in parts of the world where grid electricity is non-existent," says Vulcan Capital Managing Director, Steve Hall. "The Off Grid Electric solution represents a massive market opportunity that will serve as a foundational building block to drive economic development in these regions."
Off Grid Electric reports big plans for 2015. "We have made number of engineering and operational breakthroughs that will dramatically increase our product offering and the quality of service," Helgesen says, "we can barely keep up with demand right now."
