South African Cleantech Startup, SPS, Raises $40m in Funding
UK’s developer and investor in African electrical networks, Gridworks, and Fresh GX, a South African investment business, have announced an investment of $40 million in South Africa’s energy startup Sustainable Power Solutions (SPS).
SPS was founded in 2010 by Axel Scholle, the startup partners with commercial and industrial firms in Sub-Saharan Africa to fund, develop, build, and operate solar power systems, including battery storage, that deliver reliable, cheap sustainable energy.
SPS claims it has about 45MW of solar and more than 15MWh of battery storage (in operation and under development) across firms in South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, and the Indian Ocean islands.
Francois Van Themaat, CEO of SPS speaking on the funding thanked Gridworks and said the startup will expand its services through the funding.
“We are thankful to Gridworks and CDC Group for their continued strong support of our business. Their initial investment was made just as the world went into lockdown due to the COVID pandemic and their support allowed us to grow our business rapidly during a very challenging period”.
“During the last quarter we have consolidated our funding and engineering businesses under the single ‘Sustainable Power Solutions’ brand which, combined with the new capital injected by shareholders, will allow us to expand our fully integrated solar PV and battery storage offering across Sub Saharan Africa” Francois said.
SPS will be able to provide cleaner, less expensive solar energy to more businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa as a result of the funding.
The new investment means Gridworks will become SPS’s primary stakeholder, while New GX, which is owned by the Pitje family trust and represented by Khudusela Pitje, will take the place of the company’s current minority owners, Trigen Group and Genfin. Titan Group, founded by Christo Wiese, will remain a shareholder in the company.
Simon Hodson CEO of Gridworks speaking on the investment expressed joy over GX Capital’s involvement in the round while also saying that the partnership will help SPS push into new African markets.
“We’re delighted to become the majority shareholder in SPS and support the company in the next stage of its development. Since first investing in 2019, we’ve helped the company become one of only a small set of African developers operating sustainably to finance, build, and operate grid-tied and battery-backed, off-grid systems. We’re excited that New GX Capital have decided to invest in the business alongside us. They have a wealth of experience in long-term infrastructure investing and will be a strong partner who share our ambitions for SPS. Their investment and expertise will be invaluable as SPS expands into new markets across Africa” Hodson said.