New annual £2.5 million crowdfunding initiative launched by Bboxx and Lendahand Ethex to provide families in Rwanda, Togo and Nigeria with vital access to affordable solar energy
11 April 2018 – Lendahand Ethex partners with Bboxx to raise a target £2.5 million per year via a series of retail focused investment offers to deliver life changing solar home systems whilst targeting a 5 % annual return.
Lendahand Ethex, the leading online positive impact investing platform and Bboxx, a next generation utility, have announced today the start of a new Energise Africa partnership accessing for the first time, flexible finance from the UK crowd. The initiative aims to raise £2.5m in total through a series of smaller investment offers, allowing Bboxx to extend its roll out of life changing solar systems across Rwanda, Togo, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria.
The first offer, launched today, enables Bboxx to raise low-cost inventory finance directly from Lendahand Ethex’s growing base of socially motivated impact UK based investors, with the goal of providing 2,500 rural Rwandan households with life-changing solar systems.
UK aid will be providing matched funding of 25% of the campaign value to boost the impact of UK social impact investors. Energise Africa was launched last year with financial support from UK aid and Virgin Unite with the objective to accelerate progress towards the achievement of the UN agreed Global Goal 7 – to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030.
Lack of energy access in sub-Saharan Africa is a significant problem, with more than 600 million people currently without mains electricity supply. In Rwanda, 9.5 million people or 81% of the population cannot access mains electricity, which has a negative impact on the quality of life and limits people’s chances of achieving economic prosperity.
Bboxx is helping to address this issue by providing off-grid communities in Rwanda and other sub-Saharan African countries with smart, affordable and clean energy solutions. Bboxx customers typically pay around £3-5 per month on a Pay-As-You-Go basis and this payment method offers more access to people who are able to have electricity at home at a price they can afford. To date, Bboxx has installed more than 150,000 systems and provided around 750,000 people with access to energy. The company is driven by a vision to provide clean, reliable energy to 20 million people by 2020.
“At Bboxx we are dedicated to exploring innovative ways to finance the scaling of our business – enabling us to provide even more people with affordable, clean energy. Working with Lendahand Ethex as crowdfunding via their Energise Africa campaign represents an exciting mechanism to help us access critical finance to achieve our objectives. This raise is part of the first credit facility of many, which is likely to result in up to £10 million of retail investment over the next few years, providing an estimated 100,000 households in Africa with access to clean and affordable energy,” said Mansoor Hamayun, CEO, Bboxx.
Energise Africa makes it simple and straight forward for eligible retail investors through to more experienced investors to invest in solar businesses that can deliver a clear social, environmental and financial return. The first Energise Africa project for Bboxx will focus on Rwanda and aims to raise £250,000 of investment in order to provide clean energy to 2,500 families.
Investors in this Bboxx bond offer will also generate a potential annual return of 5% over a 36-month period and these returns can also be held tax free within an Innovative Finance ISA. Capital is at risk and returns are not guaranteed.
“We are really excited to be working with Bboxx, connecting them with our growing UK retail investor base who are motivated to make investments to support the acceleration and achievement of UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 – universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030,” stated Danny den Hartog, Managing Director Lendahand Ethex.
“One of the main inhibiting factors to increasing solar energy access in sub-Saharan Africa is the availability of competitive finance with a current funding gap of $2.5 billion. Through Energise Africa we are providing solar businesses with an alternative low-cost finance option that ultimately creates a win for our investors, a win for the solar businesses and a win for African families,” Danny further explained.
Investing in Energise Africa projects via the Lendahand.co.uk site involves risk, including the loss of all of your invested capital, illiquidity (the inability to sell assets quickly or without substantial loss in value), and it should be done only as part of a diversified portfolio.
The investment opportunities on Lendahand.co.uk are not an offer to the public in any jurisdiction and are available only to registered members of the platform who have certified that they are eligible to invest. Any person who is not resident in the United Kingdom who wishes to view these investment opportunities must first satisfy themselves that they are eligible to do so under the securities laws and regulations applicable to them. This site does not constitute an offer of, or the solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe for, any securities to any person in any jurisdiction to whom or in which such offer or solicitation would be unlawful.
In respect of its regulated activities, Lendahand Ethex Ltd is an appointed representative of Share In Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 603332).
For further information or to arrange interviews please contact:
Energise Africa and Lendahand Ethex
Rachel Mountain, Head of Marketing and Communications, Lendahand Ethex Ltd
rachel@lendahand.co.uk +44(0)1865 207042
Bboxx Media Enquiries
Amy Boekstein, Instinctif Partners, bboxx@instinctif.com / +44(0) 207 457 2064
