MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: FEI OGEF Loans $4m to Bboxx to Expand “Pulse” Electric Power Management, Pay-as-you-go Solar Energy in DRC

The Off-Grid Energy Access Fund (OGEF), a debt fund of the Facility for Energy Inclusion (FEI), recently lent USD 4 million to Bboxx, a UK-based solar energy installation and financing firm that is active in Africa and Asia. The loan proceeds are slated to help Bboxx meet its agreement with the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to provide clean energy to 10 million people in that country.

Mansoor Hamayun, CEO and Co-Founder of Bboxx, called the deal “a positive step in the right direction in securing more funds to help tackle the global energy access gap and make progress towards meeting UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 – energy for all.”

Bboxx provides pay-as-you-go solar power, which allows customers to have their solar panels enabled and disabled remotely as they are able to pay for units of power, and the Bboxx Pulse off-grid solar energy monitoring platform. Pulse provides “distributed utility businesses” with real-time customer mapping as well as monitoring of payments and other key performance indicators.

Since its founding in 2010, Bboxx has installed 350,000 solar home systems in 11 African and Asian countries. The firm has raised a total of USD 169 million over 14 capital raises from African Infrastructure Investment Managers, Bamboo Capital Partners, Doen Participaties, Engie Mitsubishi Corporation, Essential Capital Consortium, Lion’s Head Global Partners, MacKinnon Bennett & Company and Union Togolaise de Banque.

FEI OGEF is a blended debt finance fund providing secured financing to clean energy firms. Its equity investors are the African Development Bank (AfDB), the EU’s European Commission, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), the Nordic Development Fund and the Global Environment Facility. Its lenders are AfDB, All-On Nigeria, Calvert Impact Capital, Prudential Insurance Company of America and LHGP Asset Management. As of September 2020, FEI OGEF had USD 23.3 million committed and disbursed, plus USD 66.3 million in investable capital.

FEI is an AfDB initiative with USD 500 million to lend for small-scale renewable energy projects. Founded in 2016, FEI is expected to disburse approximately 50 loans to renewable energy projects in sizes ranging from USD 5 million to USD 20 million. The facility is managed by LHGP Asset Management, a subsidiary of Lion’s Head Global Partners (LHGP). LHGP is a UK-based investment bank that was founded in 2008 and provides asset management, capital raising and other services.

By Kate Finster, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

Bboxx press release
https://www.bboxx.com/press-releases/bboxx-secures-loan-with-fei-ogef-in-the-drc/

Bboxx homepage
https://www.bboxx.com

OGEF homepage
https://www.ogefafrica.com

OGEF quarterly reports
https://www.ogefafrica.com/fund-documents

FEI website
https://www.feiafrica.com

Lion’s Head Global Partners homepage
https://www.lhgp.com

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