ImpactAlpha, December 7 — In Africa, millions of off-grid low-income and rural households still use dirty and expensive kerosene lamps. Solar companies, like Chicago-based Sun King (formerly GreenLight Planet) and Kenya’s M-KOPA that offer flexible pay-as-you-go financing models, are helping households on the continent transition to solar lanterns and solar home systems.
Sun King will use proceeds from a $10 million Symbiotics’ green bond to “extend affordable off-grid solar financing to underserved communities across Sub-Saharan Africa, helping them to electrify their own homes and turn off the kerosene lamps,” said Sun King’s Krishna Swaroop.
Symbiotics issued the bond via its Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Bonds issuance platform. Proparco, France’s development finance institution, invested in the bond.
Sun King says it will help customers in Africa avoid nearly 103,000 in total carbon emissions yearly, as well as support financial inclusion for 2.7 million unbanked and low-income people by expanding access to its PayGo credit facilities.
Sun King earlier this year raked in $260 million in Series D funding to scale up “so we can meet the needs of the next billion energy consumers,” said Sun King’s Patrick Walsh.
