This $70 million fund aims to bring off-grid energy to Africa

When people living off-grid in sub-Saharan Africa need power or light, they often turn to diesel generators or kerosene-powered lamps. Not only are those energy sources expensive, dangerous, and often unreliable; they’re enormous sources of carbon emissions. Scale that to roughly 600 million suffering people in that region alone, and you’ve got an inefficient energy market that’s contributing heavily to climate change. Acumen, a nonprofit that makes early investments in sustainable and socially minded business aimed at people in poverty, plans to fix both issues with KawiSafi Ventures, a $70 million off-grid energy fund through the management group Acumen Capital Partners. The goal is to speed up access to clean energy for low-income areas, according to a recent announcement. Over the next decade, that fund aims to empower at least 10 million people and offset at least 10 million tons of carbon dioxide. “After a decade of investing more than $20 million of patient, philanthropic capital across the off-grid ecosystem, Acumen recognized the powerful potential of decentralized renewable energy solutions, both in terms of investment and impact,” says Amar Inamdar, managing director of KawiSafi Ventures in an email to Fast Company. “We were watching the energy landscape rapidly change and saw proven, profitable businesses emerge that were transforming how low-income people access electricity. These companies, however, need early-growth capital to scale so they meet customer demand and drive innovation.