Solar equipment and system manufacturer D.Light has raised US$18 million to further the reach of its pay-as-you-go operations across more countries in Africa.
With over 200,000 solar lanterns sold in the last five years in Nigeria, D.light has established its presence across retail stores in the country while also providing a delivery service for its products ordered from the online store Jumia. The success of this solar brand in Nigeria is largely due to its massive presence in the microfinance channel. With its affiliation to the largest microfinance bank in Nigeria LAPO, it has a wide channel of getting its solar products across 113 branches of the bank.
The investment was raised by a consortium of lenders including two responsAbility-managed funds, SunFunder, DWM and SIMA. The company’s new target is penetrating markets in Africa. It also wants more reach in its existing markets while it works on adding new items to its product line.
The investment underpins the catalytic role of the company in making available clean, reliable solar energy solutions through the pay-as-you-go business model that enables off-grid customers to pay for solar lighting products in affordable installments using various mobile payment options.
d.light CEO and co-founder Ned Tozun
The success of the solar system manufacturing company has been hampered by a number of factors in Nigeria primarily, a lack of market awareness about its benefits to the climate.
D.Light currently has branches in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia as well as Nigeria and has empowered 94 million lives and also offset 22 million tons of CO2 in the process since it launched in 2006.
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