Off-Grid Solar Forum & Expo Blog

By the GET.invest and A2EI teams In order to provide affordable energy for all while taking urgent action to combat climate change, renewable energy projects will have to ramp up rapidly on a global scale. Access to financing is still the main challenge for off-grid solar distributors and developers, especially in emerging economies. The lack of comprehensive and user-friendly data on project performance poses one of the major obstacles to funding. Private investors and public donors alike will, rightfully, be hesitant to put their funds behind projects that cannot transparently disclose their track record and ongoing performance. While a range of data management platforms exist, these solutions are mostly product-, project- or country-specific, or they are proprietary. To fill this gap, the Access to Energy Institute (A2EI) and the European programme GET.invest, with the support of the European Union, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Austria, have partnered to develop the data pl...

By the Energy Catalyst team The Energy Catalyst Accelerator Programme (ECAP) accelerates the innovation needed to end energy poverty and improve lives across Africa and Asia. Since its establishment, ECAP has provided business acceleration support, including advisory support—to over one hundred innovative companies in the energy sector. In supporting these companies, we have observed that successful fundraising depends on aligning a company’s capital needs to the right type of investment and suitable investor. Based on this experience, we are sharing some key insights about the process as well as some general top tips for fundraising. Insight 1: The capital raise process is long and nuanced Fundraising is a complex, nuanced, and time-consuming process. On average, the entire process takes 6-12 months. Adequately planning for this is crucial to ensure you have sufficient cash runway to keep your business afloat. You only get one or two opportunities with each prospective investor, and i...