Beacon Power closes $2.7M seed round to boost electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa

An energy tech company providing data and grid management solutions to help Africa’s power sector distribute electricity more efficiently, Beacon Power Services (BPS), has announced the closing of a $2.7 million round of seed financing on Friday.

The round was led by Seedstars Africa Ventures with participation from Persistent Energy, Factor[e], Kepple Africa Ventures, and Oridun Capital Management.

Nigerian NewsDirect reports that the funding will allow the company to enhance its product offerings, support growth in its current operations and expand beyond Nigeria and Ghana.

In a statement made available to Nigerian NewsDirect, Managing Partner at Seedstars Africa Ventures, Maxime Bouan, said “As a society, we have recognized climate change as one of the biggest threats to our generation, and it is critical we use smart capital to support entrepreneurs across Africa who are creating innovative and localized solutions to tackle this challenge.”

According to the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of BPS, Bimbola Adisa, “The BPS team has demonstrated success in partnering with Africa’s power companies to deploy data driven solutions that are relevant to their specific operating conditions.

“We recognize the significant economic, social and environmental impact of this technology that innovatively solves affordable electricity access. We are excited about the potential to support the team’s expansion to continue to disrupt power access and reliability across the continent.

“Africa is home to the fastest growing cities in the world, but when most people think of energy access in Africa, they think of the rural areas with little or no access to electricity at all. However, it is impossible for Africa to develop without significantly improving electricity access and reliability across its major cities,” Adisa noted.

Adisa added: “When we realized that solutions designed for mature markets fail to address the unique infrastructure challenges Africa faces, we developed a tailored solution for power companies on the continent to improve daily grid supply of electricity.

“We have helped our utility clients reduce network losses significantly, recover unrealised revenue and improve electricity reliability for over 30 million consumers and businesses. Most importantly, our technology is having a real impact on sustainable economic development and climate change in Africa by reducing the continent’s reliance on diesel generators.”