Pawame has announced that it has successfully secured US$1.7 mil in grant commitments, plus US$750k in equity including $250k from Launch Africa. The company has also announced that it is now launching its US$5 mil series A funding round to further boost its growth and expansion into Africa to further empower individuals to create a future for themselves that is brighter than they could have imagined.
Pawame offers a portfolio of innovative, high-quality solar home systems in remote areas of Kenya on a micro-financed basis, using mobile money repayment, making it affordable for everyone to access safe, clean and reliable energy. The business model also uses energy as a bridge to help families build a credit history and then gain access to other life-changing products through Pawame, products that they would otherwise be unable to access or afford.
Grants and funding were received from all over the world. The SDG7 Results Grant was received from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, and it will significantly accelerate and de-risk Pawame’s geographic expansion within Kenya. The Energy and Environment Partnership (EEP) grant will help accelerate the company’s product development pipeline, funding pilots for new products like solar water pumps and solar refrigerators. The Market Based Energy Access II grant (MBEA-II), from Dutch development organization SNV, will fund market activation initiatives in Kakuma and Kalobeyei refugee camps. Additional grants were secured from AECF REACT Kenya and the flagship World Bank-funded Kenya Off-Grid Solar Access Project (KOSAP), as well as US$750k in equity including $250k from Launch Africa.
Maurice Parets, CEO of Pawame, said, “Energy is just the beginning, supplanting dirty kerosene lamps, our solar products help protect as well as change the lives of off-grid families. The funds from our Series A equity round will allow us to accelerate our growth by delivering a broader array of life-changing products to more families in more of Kenya and, eventually, to other parts of Africa.”
Pawame is on target for its geographic expansion within and beyond Kenya, with the series A fundraising set to further accelerate its growth trajectory. Its current investors are primarily GCC based, with its largest shareholder being senior executives from the largest power utility companies of the Middle East as well as Launch Africa VC.
