Nigerian company Daystar Power, provider of hybrid solar power solutions to businesses, has announced a Series B investment of US$38 million to help it deepen its presence in various West African markets.
Founded in 2017, Daystar Power is an off-grid power service provider whose solutions, “Solar-as-a-Service” and “Power-as-a-Service” provide clean and reliable power while significantly reducing clients’ overall power costs.
The company is active in Nigeria, Ghana, Togo and Senegal, with a representative office in Ivory Coast, and has 23 megawatts of installed power capacity and has offset approximately 5,000 MT of CO2 to date.
Its US$38 million Series B round, which takes Daystar’s total raised funding to US$48 million, was led by the Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU), the Danish development finance institution (DFI), and also features French impact infrastructure fund STOA, Frenc DFI Proparco, backed by a guarantee from the European Union under the African Renewable Energy Scale-Up facility, and Morgan Stanley Investment Management.
With the fundraise, Daystar Power will grow its operations in its key markets of Nigeria and Ghana, while deepening its presence in other regional countries. The company is on track to expand its installed capacity to over 100 megawatts, meeting demand from its clients in the financial services, manufacturing, agricultural and natural resources sectors. Daystar Power will continue to enhance its digital offerings and expand its local teams.
“By offering our commercial and industrial clients cheaper, reliable and cleaner power, we have seen a more than 50-fold increase in power-as-a-service revenue over the last two years,” said Jasper Graf von Hardenberg, chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder of Daystar Power.
“African businesses are realising that solar power – stand-alone or in tandem with a second power source – is a superior energy alternative to the often-unreliable grid or too expensive, polluting diesel generators.”
Thomas Hougaard, vice president for Sub-Saharan Africa at IFU, said Daystar Power had the right elements – the client base, technology, engineering expertise, and executive leadership – to scale off-grid solar across West Africa.
“Not only is Daystar Power at the forefront of a growing market, it is helping to accelerate the adoption of renewable energy in some of Africa’s fastest growing cities,” he said.