Off Grid Electric of US gets US$25m for African Projects

{NAIROBI] Off Grid Electric, a San Francisco-based company with African operations, has received a total of US$25 million to boost electricity access in the continent's east, according to one of the project's investors.

The funds will be used to enable Off Grid Electric to enter its second African market, Rwanda, and to increase energy access in Tanzania by one million homes by 2017, Energy Access Ventures, an investor, said in an e-mailed statement.

"We are taking an equity stake and the total by all investors is $25 million," Michael Gera, managing director of EAV, said by phone.

Paris-based Energy Access Ventures, which began earlier this year, has a 55 million euros (S$82.3 million) fund. Other investors include DBL Investors, Zouk Capital, Vulcan Capital and SolarCity. In September, the Tanzanian government announced plans to increase power generation by 88 per cent to 2,780 megawatts. Rwanda seeks to raise installed power capacity by almost five times to 563 megawatts by 2017.

BLOOMBERG