Virunga Power announces the first closing of its Series A corporate financing round with a total of US$ 5m invested. The Electrification Financing Initiative (“ElectriFI”) and the Renewable Energy Performance Platform (“REPP”) have co-led the round with commitments of $2.5mn each.

In addition to their corporate investments, ElectriFI and REPP will pursue aligned investments in project capital expenditure to support the development and construction of Virunga Power’s growing portfolio of run-of-river small hydroelectric and rural community electrification projects in the East and Southern Africa regions.

This new financing round will allow Virunga Power to deliver on its project pipeline in Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, and Zambia. Additionally, the company intends to bring on new senior hires with specialized expertise in building and managing small hydro and rural utility projects.

“We are very excited to have ElectriFI and REPP on board as investors in our platform,” said Brian Kelly, Founder and CEO of Virunga Power. “It is very important to us to have investors who are aligned with our goals of expanding sustainable and practical electricity infrastructure across the continent, and we welcome the experience and acceleration that these investors can bring to our mission.”

Dominiek Deconinck, ElectriFI Fund Manager said: “What Virunga Power demonstrates is an incredible ability to structure and develop run-of-the-river hydro project in East Africa. We are willing to bring additional execution capacities and build Virunga Power’s track-record. Scaling Virunga Power’s model will be life-changing for thousands of people and will aim at commissioning over 50MW of clean energy in the coming years.”

Geoff Sinclair, Managing Director at Camco Clean Energy, which manages REPP, said: “We look forward to supporting Virunga Power as it develops projects across East Africa to bring clean power to thousands of people. Decentralised renewable energy initiatives offer a wealth of benefits to the region’s underserved rural communities – from being a cheaper and easier alternative to rolling out the national grid, to providing a high quality, clean and reliable supply of electricity. This investment in Virunga Power will be key to its success in the next few years.”

About ElectriFI

The Electrification Financing Initiative (ElectriFI) is an impact investment facility with a mandate to invest in on- and off-grid early stage private companies and projects focusing on new/improved connections as well as on generation capacity from renewable energy sources in emerging markets. Typical business models include solar home systems, mini-grids, IPPs and captive power production. Core investors are the European Union and the USAID Power Africa. EDFI Management Company NV manages ElectriFI, and its sister-fund AgriFI (the Agriculture Financing Initiative) in close association with the 15 European Development Finance Institutions (EDFI) as well as many other like-minded investors.

For more information, please visit: www.electrifi.eu.