Qotto, a photo voltaic kits supplier with operations in Burkina Faso and Benin, has raised $8 million in a Series A equity-debt spherical led by the IBL group, a billion-dollar conglomerate headquartered in Mauritius with enterprise pursuits in various sectors together with power, monetary providers, logistics, distribution, and engineering.
The Off-Grid Energy Access Fund (FEI-OGEF), Cordaid, and Qotto’s current traders additionally participated within the spherical.
Qotto informed TechCrunch it plans to scale in current markets, and develop to Ivory Coast the place it’s set to start operations by subsequent month.
Founded in 2016, Qotto designs and distributes stand-alone photo voltaic kits and lanterns to people residing within the least electrified areas of Africa. Through a pay-to-own mannequin , it avails its merchandise to people in Sub-Saharan Africa which are off-grid owing to underdeveloped nationwide energy grids.
“For Ivory Coast, due to its consistent pace of development relative to the broader West Africa region, and after having tested and optimized operations and services in Benin and Burkina Faso, Qotto is well prepared for a market entry. Moreover, the customers who have been able to test the Qotto products in the country, have expressed a need and desire to see Qotto enter the Ivory Coast market,” mentioned Qotto co-founder and president, Jean-Baptiste Lenoir.
Qotto says IBL is drawing its roadmap for East Africa growth too, after signing a partnership and agreeing to supply off-grid options within the area. The growth, to happen by September this yr, will occur alongside that of IBL, which is planning to “to strengthen its position in East Africa and to develop its renewable energies exposure.”
“Together, we see a great opportunity for the essential services and large Solar Home Systems offerings provided by Qotto,” mentioned Lenoir.
The development bid follows the deliberate introduction of recent merchandise out there, together with monetary providers and web entry hotspots, as Qotto evolves into an all-rounded important providers operator.
“Our edge is that our presence in rural areas allows us to understand the customers and their needs so that we can propose innovative products based on our technical platform,” he mentioned.
The deliberate monetary providers embrace micro-insurance, micro-credit and micro-savings merchandise, designed in collaboration with companions similar to SUNU, a big insurer in West Africa. Qotto mentioned it has already offered 1000’s of life insurance coverage contracts.
The web hotspots will probably be positioned in high-foot site visitors areas just like the retailers, eating places or bars.
“In sub-Saharan Africa, 650M people do not have access to electricity. 550M do not have access to the Internet and 800M do not have access to financial services. Many of these customers are overlapping in their needs for off-grid solutions, connectivity and financial services,” mentioned Lenoir
“Our model helps to solve these critical issues under a single solution – which we call “essential services”, backed by our proprietary expertise stack. In addition, we’re aligned with the SDGs to serve clients and enhance influence indicators in our markets,” he mentioned.
Renewable power options by corporations like Qotto are bridging the power entry hole within the least electrified nations like South Sudan, Burundi, Chad, Malawi, Burkina Faso, Madagascar and Tanzania, all positioned in sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for 75% of the world’s inhabitants with no entry electrical energy.
Qotto says its income has grown 50% yr on yr, and that it had 11,000 lively clients by the top of final yr, which it plans to greater than double by the shut of this yr following its development plans.
.