The Nigerian start-up, specializing in the development of off-grid networks for markets and SMEs, has just announced the closing of its series A fundraising, led by the investment funds CRE Venture Capital and Omidyar Network.

To electrify the continent's markets, better and better structured alternatives are emerging in the face of noisy, polluting and potentially dangerous electric generators.

The Nigerian company Rensource Energy, founded in 2015 and specializing in solar off-grid (the supply of electrification systems not connected to the conventional electricity grid), has just announced the closing of a fundraising of 20 million Series A dollars. The raise was led by funds CRE Venture Capital and Omidyar Network (created by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar).

Rensource Energy targets the supply of businesses, small and medium-sized businesses, but above all large external urban markets, considering these entities as the main drivers of the local economy.

It finances the installation of mini-grids (solar panels, batteries, distribution systems), and invoices the supply of electricity to local traders through weekly or monthly subscriptions.

Large markets, engines of the local economy
Based in Lagos, it is currently active in seven commercial sites, in six of the country's thirty-six states, but it plans to expand its activity to hundreds of markets in Nigeria and West Africa, in the next two years.

Based on this fundraising, the founders of Rensource are also launching an online platform to support merchants (or integrated management software package), for monitoring their supply chain, analyzing financial data, and their cash management.

A prospect that creates opportunities for Nigeria, Africa's largest economy, where in 2017, 76.8 million people did not have access to electricity (out of a total population of 188.6 million, according to the International Energy Agency). Moreover, according to the IMF, in 2019 the economic losses of the country were estimated at 29 billion dollars, due to its unreliable electricity supply.