South Africa’s Sun Exchange raises $3 million for solar energy
Stake : For the solar start-up Sun Exchange to secure long-term funds for its future African projects.
South African start-up Sun Exchange, which specialises in raising funds for solar energy projects, announced the closing of its Series A financing round with an additional $3 million from the Africa Renewable Power Fund (ARPF), an entity controlled by billionaire Patrice Motsepe.
Founded in Cape Town in 2014, Sun Exchange, through its blockchain technology platform, connects investors (individuals and institutions) who finance solar energy projects with potential beneficiaries, who live mainly in rural areas of the African continent. In its press release, issued on 9 June, the start-up’s management welcomed the fact that this new round of financing has brought its Series A financing round to a total of $4 million - the phase when a company first opens its capital to external investors [business angels, venture capital funds…], which is initiated in 2019. In fact, the company has already indicated that it plans to enter new markets, including expanding its solar equipment and solutions to organizations in a variety of industries in sub-Saharan Africa. So far mainly present in the Rainbow Nation, Sun Exchange is expected to export its solutions to the main markets in Sub-Saharan Africa where ARPF operates, including Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Zambia.
An investment fund active in the renewable energy segment, ARPF is best known for being controlled, via its parent company African Rainbow Capital, by billionaire Patrice Motsepe, the brother-in-law of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who made his fortune in the mining sector.
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