“Arnergy inherently understands the West African market and its need for power reliability. Creating accessibility to reliable renewable energy sources is paramount to economic growth in this region.” – Carmichael Roberts of Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
Arnergy, a Nigerian owned distributed utility company has announced that it raised $9 Million in a Series A round of funding led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures with participation from the Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries (Norfund), ElectriFI and All On. The new capital will fuel commercial growth towards providing energy reliability to customers particularly SME’s and economic clusters in healthcare, education and hospitality sectors.
According to Femi Adeyemo, Founder and CEO of Arnergy, the company is excited to enter the next phase of its development with investors that share its vision of tackling the most pressing energy challenges across emerging market economies, starting with Nigeria. “We believe that energy needs in Nigeria have surpassed rudimentary requirements of low power utilization and our product offerings are solving for access and reliability,” Adeyemo said.
Femi Adeyemo, Founder of Arnergy
“This is a deal that is particularly exciting to us at All On as a Nigerian impact investor,” said Wiebe Boer, CEO of All On. “Because it reinforces our belief that local energy companies like Arnergy, with innovative Nigerian technology and business models, can attract investments from global giants and are ready to compete on a global stage.”
Arnergy’s distributed renewable energy systems harness the combination of solar power, superior storage solutions and proprietary remote management technologies to deliver scalable, reliable and affordable energy solutions to tackle issues related to intermittency and grid unreliability. Since its launch in 2013, the company has delivered over 2MW of installed capacity and over 5MWh of storage capacity to business and residential clients across Nigeria and is on track to deploy excess of 100 MW installed PV capacity to power over 35000 businesses across impact sectors.
It’s market scaling ambitions, fueled by the influx of new capital, will include new business models and partnership opportunities, as well as consumer financing and channel expansion activities. Arnergy’s target for its 5KW modular systems includes small businesses, healthcare, hospitality, financial services, agribusiness and education. Acquisition models are flexible with subscription, lease and outright sale options.
(L -R) -Wiebe Boer (All On); Bunmi Adekore (Breakthrough Energy Ventures); Femi Adeyemo (Arnergy Founder); Anders Blom (Norfund); Kunle Odebunmi (Arnergy Co-Founder)
Arnergy’s impact
Job creation in Nigeria’s renewable energy sector while reducing energy poverty from the bottom to the top of the pyramid.
Stimulating economic growth by creating a convenient environment of operation for SME’s with its reliable power and flexible payment options.
With its technology, Arnergy significantly reduces carbon emissions and pollution in occupied regions thereby providing cleaner air and improving the quality of life for customers.
The company improves business and economic outcomes by emphasizing reliable energy for productive use while reducing OPEX costs that threaten the sustainability of its target clusters.
About Breakthrough Energy Ventures
Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) invests in companies that leverage innovative technologies to help address climate change. Backed by many of the world’s top business leaders, BEV has more than $1 billion in committed capital to support bold entrepreneurs building companies that can significantly reduce emissions from agriculture, buildings, electricity, manufacturing, and transportation. The fund was created in 2016 by the Breakthrough Energy Coalition.
About All On
All On, an independent impact investing company, was seeded with funding from Shell and works with partners to increase access to commercial energy products and services for underserved and unserved off-grid energy markets in Nigeria, with a special focus on the Niger Delta. All On invests in off-grid energy solutions spanning solar, wind, hydro, biomass and gas technologies deployed by both foreign and local access-to-energy companies that complement available grid power across Nigeria and help bridge the significant energy gap.
About Norfund
Norfund is owned by the Government of Norway and serves as an instrument in the Norwegian development assistance policy. The fund’s mission is to create jobs and improve lives by investing in businesses that drive sustainable development. The three main industries for investments are clean energy, financial institutions and food & agribusiness, with a geographical focus in Sub-Saharan Africa and in selected countries in Asia and Central America. Norfund is an active, responsible minority investor that always invests together with partners.
About ElectriFI
ElectriFI, the Electrification Financing Initiative invests in on-and off-grid early stage private companies focusing on creating new or improved connections and on adding generation capacity from renewable energy sources in emerging markets. Typical business models include solar home systems, mini-grids, IPPs and captive power production. ElectriFI is backed by the European Union, US Power Africa & Sweden, and is managed by the EDFI Management Company owned by 15 European Development Finance Institutions (EDFI).
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