d.light Receives $176 Million Funding For Building Up Solar-Powered Lighting Products In East Africa
Posted on : Wednesday, 7th August 2024
d.light has announced the conclusion of a new financing facility that will purchase $176 million in receivables from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. African Frontier Capital, a social impact-focused investment management company, is providing the fresh financing.
d.light claims it will use the infrastructure to expand its PayGo consumer credit service, making solar-powered items more accessible to economically disadvantaged households and communities without access to electricity. "The facility is multi-currency and will enable access to reliable, renewable energy for an estimated six million people across the three countries over the next three years" .
d.light describes itself as a 'global provider of transformational household products as well as affordable finance for low-income households', and says it has, with this new facility, "closed securitised financing with a total combined purchasing value of USD$718 million across five separate facilities since 2020".
Nedjip Tozun, the organization's CEO, "Facilities like this make possible our pioneering PayGo consumer financing model with which we are able to offer solar home systems and high efficiency appliances to the people that need them most in a way that is affordable and sustainable."
Tozun states that with the money, "d.light has for the first time in its history receivables-based financing facilities in each of our PayGo markets - Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Nigeria. These facilities enable d.light to maintain consistent cash flow profitability and eliminate the need for additional external equity financing to fund our expansion."
d.light had previously established four facilities, starting in 2020, with two in Kenya and one each in Nigeria and Tanzania. The aggregate purchase value of the current facilities and the new facility is $718 million.
In February 2024, d.light reported that its $110 million securitisation facility, Brighter Life Kenya 1 Limited (BLK1), successfully serviced its entire unsecured debt in full and prior to schedule via internally generated cash flows, being the first facility in the off-grid solar sector to do so.
d.light notes that it has been collaborating with distribution partners in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania since 2010 and has conducted its own manufacturing facilities in Kenya since 2011, Uganda since 2015 and Tanzania since 2016.
