New York-based venture capital firm Persistent Energy Capital LLC, and Nigeria’s Verod Capital Management have invested $10 million in Daystar Power, an off-grid solar energy firm focused on West Africa.
The Mauritius-based solar company builds off-grid solar farms with batteries for energy storage, offering power solutions to commercial and industrial customers in Nigeria.
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Daystar Power will use the $10 million to expand its offering in West Africa, with a focus on Ghana, according to CNBCAfrica.
In addition to the $10 million, the company has lined up $16 million in debt financing to accelerate its expansion in in the region.
Daystar Power was founded in Lagos in 2017 by Christian Wessels and Jasper Graf von Hardenberg and incubated by African VC fund, Sunray Ventures, according to a press release.
The solar firm has opened an office in Accra, Ghana, headed up by Olaedo Osoka, a former executive at Sunray Ventures, according to a renewableenergymag.
Before joining the solar-focused venture fund and being involved in founding Daystar, Osoka worked as a lawyer at Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie, a large law firm in Nigeria.
With Daystar’s power solutions, clients in the banking, consumer goods, agriculture, and manufacturing sectors are able to minimize the use of diesel generators and cut down their operating costs, according to TechinAfrica.
The West African region has seen growth for solar energy over the last year, and Ghana has been a particular focus for firms in the sector.
In September 2018, Y Combinator-backed Nigerian solar-powered internet service provider Tizeti raised $3 million in a series-A round of funding that will allow the startup to expand into Ghana, according to the company.
In March 2019, Ghana-based pay-as-you-go solar company Peg Africa raised a $25 million series-C funding round to expand, bringing its total funding to $47.5 million, according to a press release.
