Cameroon’s Leading Access to Energy Provider upOwa Closes Series A2
Cameroon-based solar home systems business upOwa has successfully closed its Series A2 funding round with a EUR 2.5m investment. The investment was led by the UK government-backed Renewable Energy Performance Platform (REPP), which is managed by Camco Clean Energy, together with French family office Colam Impact. Additional crowd-funded equity is being raised through LITA.co, a Paris-based impact investor. Persistent, along with other pre-existing investors including INCO and Gaia Impact, also participated in the Series A2 round following the conversion of pre-existing convertible loans into shares.
upOwa has pioneered solar home systems on a pay-as-you-go basis in Cameroon, offering low-income, off-grid families an affordable opportunity to access clean energy for lighting, charging phones and powering small household appliances. This investment will further support the company’s growth and expansion, providing more solar solutions for people with no access to electricity in Cameroon.
upOwa is set to rapidly increase its market footprint in Cameroon. In addition to providing clean, reliable and affordable electrification solutions to low-income off-grid households, “the company has now started offering higher range products with the potential to generate positive impacts beyond basic appliances,” highlights upOwa CBDO Caroline Frontigny.
“upOwa’s growth is very exciting,” says upOwa CEO Kilien de Renty, “but with it comes the critical need for committed partners, including investors, willing to rise to the challenge along with our dedicated teams. We are thrilled to now have REPP, Colam Impact and LITA.co join forces with us, as this will also unlock access to the debt funding upOwa needs to pursue its scaling-up plans in Central Africa and eradicate energy poverty in a sustainable manner there.”
Geoff Sinclair, REPP Manager and Managing Director of Camco Clean Energy, states: “REPP’s equity investment facilitated further equity investments by Colam Impact and LITA, providing upOwa with capital to scale up, and unlocked meaningful quantities of debt funding which will enable the company to increase its sales. The upOwa team is now well positioned to build on the foundations it has created.”
Tobias Ruckstuhl, Principal at Persistent, highlights: “We are extremely proud of the whole upOwa team and the progress they have made since we first invested in 2017 to be able to close such a considerable Series A2. We are excited to have been able to contribute to this through our initial investments as well as participation in this investment round. In particular, this achievement highlights the success of our venture building approach through which we have supported upOwa through interim CFO services since the start and helped build the company to the stage it is now.”
For further information, please contact jessica@staging.persistent.energy.