Ghana’s off-grid pay-as-you-go solar firm Persistent Energy Ghana (PEG) has closed a $7.5 million Series A round to expand operations in Ghana, build out the management team, and to enter Ivory Coast.
The A-2 round was led by Energy Access Ventures, and includes Blue Haven Initiative, as well as follow-on investment from existing investors, Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P) and Engie Rassembleurs d’Energies. These investors join Impact Assets and Persistent Energy Capital, among others.
In a statement, Hugh Whalan, CEO of PEG: “We are thrilled to receive the support of new and existing investors, and to continue our vision to bring pay-as-you-go financing to the massive, and largely ignored, West African market. As a market leader in this region, where there are 35 million off-grid homes, we are uniquely placed to do this.”
PEG has over 10,000 customers and operates 29 service centers in 7 regions of Ghana. The Series A investment comes from a $4.3 million USD A-2 round which closed today and follows an earlier A-1 investment of $3.2 million in September 2015.
A statement from EAV says it invested $2 million in this A-2 round. PEG provides loans for solar home systems and other useful assets to off-grid households in West Africa. PEG is able to focus on off-grid customers, who are often rural and considered risky by banks and microfinance, because it provides loans using ‘pay-as-you-go’ technology.
“We are immensely proud to be investing in PEG. EAV was hugely impressed with PEG’s leadership team and greatly looks forward to working with the company and its other investors,” Lauren Cochran, Director of Private Investments, Blue Haven Initiative.
PEG is focused on providing credit for useful and productive assets to off-grid customers, and by doing this, we seek to enable customers to gain ownership of assets that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford. Importantly, as customers pay off their loan to PEG, we start to understand their credit history, which is a valuable tool we can then use to provide for additional loans for products and services.
