The French impact investment group Investisseurs & Partenaires, or I&P, invested in Bulawayo-based NeedEnergy, to optimize energy consumption for businesses and utilities. The startup developed an energy trading platform for microgrids, distribution grids and end users, and services solar farms and virtual power plants for the mining and manufacturing industries in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Africa expansion
I&P launched in 2002 to bridge the small business financing gap in francophone Africa. It has expanded to English-speaking countries in West Africa and says it has supported more than 200 businesses across Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Guinea, Chad and other countries.
The firm also aims to seed and develop 10 impact funds across Africa; it has already launched five funds, including Sinergi in Burkina Faso and Niger and Teranga Capital in Senegal.
Digital energy
NeedEnergy is the latest investee under I&P’s Digital Energy program, a six-year program launched in 2022 that’s funded by the European Union and operated with the French Development Agency and Gaia Impact Fund. The €4 million ($4.4 million) program will provide a dozen companies with reimbursable loans of up to €500,000 ($544,000) to scale solar home systems, micro grids and renewable energy solutions that connect 150,000 people to energy for the first time.
The program’s initial six recipients include off-grid solar companies Innovex in Uganda and Solarly in Cameroon, as well as Senegalese companies Senfrais, which offers solar-powered refrigeration, and Ibriz, a solar-irrigation systems provider.
