BEAM investment platform to deploy initial $50m to scale energy access in the developing world

5 February 2018, Geneva/London – A PIONEERING platform set to revolutionise access to energy for millions in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia is launched today. 

The BEAM platform – the first of its kind – is set to initially deploy USD$50 million in equity for distributed energy service companies (DESCOs) and will unlock further debt capital. It is the brainchild of Bamboo Capital Partners (“Bamboo”), the pioneering private equity firm delivering positive social and financial value, and BBOXX, a next generation utility.

BEAM starts with a first equity investment in BBOXX and its data-driven DESCOs, providing off-grid energy to consumers in Africa and Asia, to scale and generate greater impact in their respective markets. In addition to the equity capital from BEAM, the investment platform will catalyse further capital through debt, joint ventures and co-investments.

With some 1.1 billion people across the world without access to reliable energy, BEAM aims to play an instrumental role in delivering energy services to transform lives in the developing world. BEAM aims to aid the growth of an array of off-grid energy service companies, spanning solar home systems, large solar, and metering applications such as pumps and mini-grids. 

In the first instance the deployment of capital will focus on ten countries but the vision is for this to disrupt the market and scale across continents. 

Jean-Philippe de Schrevel, Founder at Bamboo Capital Partners, said, “BEAM will catalyse substantial investment into off-grid energy access initiatives across the developing world. By drawing in and encouraging further capital via joint ventures, debt and co-investments, we have a bold and ambitious vision of providing millions more with access to energy to improve their everyday lives.

“The vision of BEAM is to grow and thereby unlock this multi-billion dollar market. 

“Importantly, alongside a tried and tested strategy, BEAM already has considerable firepower to make investments in the coming year. We will now be executing our strategy so that in the long term we achieve Bamboo’s ultimate objective of delivering social and financial impact.”

By focusing on distributed businesses, BEAM is helping to leapfrog the need for developing countries to invest in expensive traditional grid infrastructure, thereby aiding economic growth.

Partnering through BEAM will enable distributed energy service companies to benefit from BBOXX’s data-driven smart technology to improve operational efficiency and enhance customer service.

This includes Pulse, a cloud-based task management platform, which enables distributed businesses to improve efficiency. Pulse digitalises a business’ entire sales and service management, automating tasks for sales agents, technicians, call centres and its supply chain. For example, Pulse uses product monitoring to predict failure and allow the operational team to proactively support customers, automatically schedules field staff tasks, and understands what type of customer is most likely to default.

Mansoor Hamayun, Chief Executive Officer of BBOXX said, “BEAM solves two key market failures to scale DESCOs across the developing world – firstly, access to equity before debt becomes viable, and secondly it allows to drive disaggregation in what has been a vertical integrated model – both essential to scale.

“The BEAM model will allow to take our successful model in Rwanda and Kenya and expand it across Africa and Asia by solving a key financial challenge.

We are excited by the prospect of partnering with Bamboo and the BEAM platform to power the growth of off-grid utilities across the developing world.”

 

-ENDS- 

About Bamboo Capital Partners

Bamboo Capital Partners (Bamboo”) is a pioneering private equity firm that delivers positive social and financial value. Bamboo invests in businesses primarily in financial services, energy and healthcare that leverage technology to have impact at scale in emerging markets.

Founded in 2007, Bamboo is a longstanding sector leader and through continuous evolution has a honed strategy for growth. Bamboo has raised over $300m across four funds to date.

Bamboo has positively impacted over 58 million lives and created over 27,000 jobs through its investments in over 30 countries. The firm has a team of 25 professionals active across Europe, South America, Africa and Asia.

For more information, please visit http://www.bamboocp.com/ 

About BBOXX

BBOXX is a venture backed next generation utility, developing solutions to provide affordable, clean energy to off-grid communities in the developing world.

BBOXX is fully vertically integrated, controlling every part of its customer experience. Its market leading products and appliances coupled with our SMART Solar platform bring machine-learning and customer experience optimisation to rural Africa. Ground-breaking financing structure has brought off-grid solar into the world’s financial markets.

With over 150,000 systems deployed so far; 500 staff across 5 offices in China, UK and East Africa are waking up every morning to work with BBOXX to electrify 20 million people by 2020.

You can find further information about BBOXX on its website at – http://www.bboxx.co.uk/ 

Bamboo Capital Partners media enquiries

Ross Gillam / Lewis Hill, Instinctif Partners, [email protected] / 0207 457 2035

BBOXX media enquiries

Please contact:

Rolf Merchant, Instinctif Partners, [email protected] / 0207 457 2049

Lewis Hill
Account Executive
D +44 20 7427 1418 | M +44 7837 647 600

INSTINCTIF PARTNERS

65 Gresham Street, London, EC2V 7NQ
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www.instinctif.com