Baobab+, a French company specializing in electrification via solar home systems has secured a $5 million loan from the impact investment platform Symbiotics based in Geneva, Switzerland. The funding will allow the company to expand its services in six countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Paris-based company installs solar home systems in these sub-Saharan countries mainly in rural households. In addition to lighting, these systems are capable of powering small electronic devices such as cell phones, radios and televisions. To break down the cost barrier in rural areas where purchasing power is quite low, the electricity provider is banking on the pay-as-you-go model that is very common in the solar home systems segment.
Founded in 2015, Baobab+ is present in Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal, Madagascar, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The company said, “Baobab+ has developed a scoring system that allows its customers to become eligible for micro-credits, using the repayment history of the solar or digital product to assess the creditworthiness of customers.”
Baobab+ which is backed Baobab Microfinance Group, the parent company of Baobab+, hopes to expand the reach of its solution to all countries.
“Symbiotics’ support will allow us to strengthen our presence, especially in Nigeria and the DRC, where we recently launched our operations. It’s really great for us to have an impact investor like Symbiotics by our side, to support us in our growth,” says Alexandre Coster, co-founder and CEO of Baobab+.
Baobab+ raised €10 million investment from Norfund in 2021 to fund electrification and digitalization projects in numerous African countries. It has also has outfitted 240,000 households and served over 1,500,000 clients in the past six years. In March 2022, the company launched Pay-As-You-Go solar in Nigeria.
