Uche Cecil Izuora
Arnergy has secured $18 million to expand renewable energy footprint in Nigeria, as demand for solar energy in power-starved Nigeria soared in the last decade following worsening grid reliability and rising fuel costs.
The company a clean tech startup just raised a $15 million Series B extension on top of a $3 million B1 round last year bringing its total for the round to $18 million.
That surge in demand for solar systems follows significant policy shifts, most notably the removal of petrol subsidy in May 2023 ending a practice of covering the gap between global and local fuel prices.
Since then, petrol prices have jumped nearly 500 per cent, making power generators, once seen as the more affordable alternative to unreliable grid power and solar systems despite environmental hazards, far costlier to run.
Arnergy’s pitch has changed with the times. “When we started the business, we used to position solar as a way to get uninterrupted power, not necessarily to save money. It wasn’t part of a commercial conversation,” founder and CEO Femi Adeyemo said.
Now it is, because we can clearly show customers how our systems save them monthly whether using petrol, diesel, or even the grid.”
Adeyemo launched Arnergy in 2013 to provide solar systems to homes and businesses across sectors like hospitality, education, finance, agriculture, and healthcare.
What began as a resilience play is now a cost-savings strategy changing the economics of adoption for the clean tech backed by Bill Gate’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures the firm led Arnegy’s $9 million Series A in 2019.
That adoption is clearest in the company’s lease-to-own product, Z Lite, which became a core focus following Arnergy’s first Series B tranche last year.
So far, Arnergy has deployed over 1,800 systems across 35 Nigeria, totaling 9MWp of solar and 23MWh of battery storage.
Arnergy plans to use its new funding led by Nigerian private equity firm CardinalStone Capital Advisers (CCA) to install more than 12,000 systems by 2029.