Led · Seed · Aug 2024

Open Access Energy is a Cape Town, South Africa SaaS startup that provides a multilateral wheeling software platform automating the matching of generation and consumption loads to enable precise wheeling transactions. The platform is designed to let energy wheelers execute wheeling transactions seamlessly and to streamline reconciliation between generation and demand. The company positions its product to improve grid reliability, reduce emissions, and create new revenue streams for Independent Power Producers (IPPs). Founded in 2021 by Gerjo Hoffman and Christoff Albertyn, Open Access Energy aims to transform South Africa’s energy sector by facilitating wheeling at scale. With the recent seed funding, the company plans to scale operations, develop new features, and enhance its market position within the energy sector. Open Access Energy operates in the energy technology solutions/software category and announced a $750K seed round in August 2024.

Participated · Convertible Note · Jan 2024

InspiraFarms Cooling designs, develops, and installs efficient precooling and cold‑chain technology for fresh fruit, vegetables, flowers, and animal protein supply chains. Its product set includes cold rooms, precoolers, freezers, packhouses, slaughterhouse solutions, long‑term potato storage and temperature‑controlled warehouses that are renewable‑energy compatible and can be 100% off‑grid. The company says its solutions cut energy costs, reduce post‑harvest losses, extend shelf life and can enable up to 25% energy savings. InspiraFarms has deployed hundreds of units across 15 countries and serves agribusinesses, exporters, third‑party logistics and food distributors. The business is piloting a Cooling‑as‑a‑Service model and prioritizes off‑grid energy cold‑storage projects across the continent. Management frames the offering as addressing Africa’s cold‑chain gap—only 5% of fresh produce enters the cold chain—contributing to reductions in food loss and related emissions. InspiraFarms designs, finances and supplies energy-efficient, solar-powered cold rooms to agribusinesses and food distributors across East and Southern Africa. Its technology aims to reduce post-harvest losses, cut energy costs and help customers meet international food safety certifications. The company offers remote performance monitoring and long-term asset financing to address scarcity of financing for African agribusinesses. InspiraFarms is partnering with the Shell Foundation and project finance partners to scale a leasing platform and expand offerings such as cooling-as-a-service, first-mile cooling for outgrowers, and medium-to-large cold storage for distributors and exporters. Co-founder and CEO Tim Chambers said the firm recently closed a Series B to expand operations in the region, though he did not disclose the amount. The business emphasizes solar power and financing solutions to expand cold-chain capacity in rural and intermittently electrified areas. InspiraFarms designs and supplies modular cold storage and food-processing units that run on off-grid renewable energy to reduce post-harvest losses and meet food-safety requirements. The company is a B‑Corp headquartered in Sevenoaks, England, with production in Italy and regional offices and sales agents in Guatemala, Kenya, and South Africa. Its units have been deployed since 2014 in Guatemala and in 2015 in Rwanda, helping producers increase output and comply with GAP and HACCP standards. InspiraFarms says its technology can increase annual farm income in target regions by about 40% by extending shelf life and enabling access to higher-value markets. The business plans to use new funding to substantially expand global reach, potentially selling up to five new units per month and offering interest-free loans to customers. Its modular, financeable platform targets smallholder farmers in off-grid and unreliable-grid areas to improve productivity, reduce losses, and create employment opportunities.

Participated · Seed · Feb 2023

Gateway.fm is a decentralized blockchain infrastructure and node provider based in Stavanger, Norway, led by CEO Cuautemoc Weber. It builds distributed, multi-chain infrastructure and decentralized RPC solutions designed to help Web3 projects scale without allocating resources to configuring or maintaining servers or relying on centralized services like AWS. Its product suite includes Grow (institutional staking validators across PoS chains like Ethereum, Gnosis and IXO), Access (a dedicated, cost-effective RPC node service supporting ETH, Fantom, NEAR and Gnosis) and Jumpstart (which enables new blockchains, appchains and protocols to accelerate mainnet launch and drive user adoption). The company has received market validation from partners including 1inch, Gnosis, Ethereum Foundation, NEAR and Polygon Labs. Gateway.fm plans to use new funding to expedite product development and the provision of advanced staking services while driving user acquisition and recruitment. It intends to place particular emphasis on scaling its engineering department.

Led · Seed · Feb 2023

SunFi operates a marketplace and finance platform that aggregates solar system vendors and offers lease-to-own and subscription payment options to households and businesses. The company vets vendors and de-risks technical and credit risk to open lending channels for clean energy portfolios. Since launching, SunFi has onboarded over 40 solar system vendors (10 core providers), served more than 129 customers and deployed over $600,000 via partnerships with financial institutions. Revenues come from margins on lease-to-own contracts and subscription fees; the firm is developing a third revenue stream to provide inventory financing to solar providers. The team is roughly 29 people and plans to enhance its platform over the next 12–18 months while targeting conversion of more than 4,000 customers in that period. SunFi positions itself as a fintech-for-clean-tech intermediary that helps solar providers, customers and investors manage installations and financing workflows.

Led · Equity · Dec 2022

enee.io is a Manchester-based energy monitoring startup that develops a platform to monitor and manage energy for commercial and industrial users, particularly in regions with inadequate grid supply. The company is integrating artificial intelligence and machine learning into its platform to process multiple data sources, including local weather forecasts and live regional diesel costs, to calculate actual energy costs. enee.io will work with Manchester-based AI/ML specialist Fuzzy Labs to develop data processing capabilities and enable its Nigerian partner Aspire Power Solutions to implement advanced algorithms at 20 sites in Lagos. The platform is designed to present customers with clear visibility of energy generation and true costs, improving utilization of renewable systems and lowering diesel reliance. Financially, enee.io received a £670,000 Innovate UK Energy Catalyst 10 (EC10) grant; it previously received a £600,000 Innovate UK EC8 grant and has secured over £1m in investment led by Green Angel Syndicate and US venture development firm Factor[e]. Leadership framed the EC10 award as validation of the team’s work and a step toward delivering affordable, sustainable energy where it is most crucial. enee.io is a Manchester-based green tech start-up that has developed a "fitness tracker for energy systems" composed of plug-and-play IoT monitors, a mobile app and an online reporting platform. The system monitors energy generation, storage and consumption, alerts users to issues and provides data to help homeowners and businesses improve system efficiency and reduce energy costs. To date the enee.io solution has been installed in 12 countries across five continents. The company aims to lower the cost of owning renewable power systems to improve reliability and increase access to electricity in developing countries, where roughly 900 million people lack access to power. Financially, enee.io has secured over £1 million in its latest funding round led by Green Angel Syndicate and Factor[e], alongside a grant from Innovate UK's Energy Catalyst 8 competition. The funds and grant will be used to further develop and scale the energy management platform and support six new hires in software development and operations over the next six months.