Dear ABAN Member,
Environmental challenges in the current world are real. Issues such as climate change, pollution, food waste and biodiversity loss cannot be ignored. That is precisely why cleantech is necessary and one of the major growing focusses for African startups. Clean technology refers to any measures taken to reduce or eliminate negative environmental impacts, while encouraging economic development.
According to the World Bank, air pollution cost the globe an estimated $8.1 trillion in 2019, equivalent to 6.1 percent of the global GDP, while 95 percent of deaths caused by air pollution occur in low and middle income countries.
CLEAN TECH SOLUTIONS
Tech start-ups in Africa are taking the lead when it comes to clean tech by offering solutions such as hydroponics, solar power, sustainable transportation and recycling. Solar energy is renewable, free to use and has no negative impact on the environment. However, solar panels are expensive to set up and that is where startups like SunFi come in. SunFi is a technology platform that connects people who want solar energy access to payment plans that match their needs.
“A bottleneck for us was access to finance. We had to use our own balance sheet to fund customers to get solar solutions. So that is how we started what we do. We started with solar but hope to venture out into more clean tech solutions,” said Rotimi Thomas, CEO SunFi. He made the remarks during a webinar organised by ABAN and VC4A ahead of the 2022 AESIS Summit slated for November.
CleanTech StartUp Funding
One of the main objectives for clean technology is to increase the labour input in the production process. While Clean tech startups could play a huge role in aiding, these financial difficulties are slowing the process. According to moneyzine.com, of the startups that do fail, 82% is due to cash flow problems.
Khaled Ismail, the Founder and Chairman of HimAngel, a company dedicated to creating opportunities for startups to succeed through financing/investments, said the only solution would be to invest. With impact investing (investment in companies that provide a positive environmental impact as well as generate financial gains) fast becoming a trend in clean technology, the time to capitalise in the sector is now. The 2020 Annual Impact Investor Survey determined that the impact investor market was estimated to be worth 715 Billion USD in the same year. With cleaner technology fast growing, impact investment grows with it.
Women in Clean Tech
Game changers like Ifeoma Malo, CEO of Clean Tech Hub Nigeria trying to stir the gender pot in this sector. Clean Tech Hub is a pioneering hybrid hub for the research, development, demonstration and incubation of clean energy ideas, technologies, and resources for clean energy organisations and climate friendly initiatives across Africa. She says a lot more should be done to support women to find cleantech solutions. Data from US provider Pitchbook shows that Private Equity (PE) investment globally into clean tech businesses founded by men was $10bn in 2021 compared to $26.1m raised by businesses with female founders in the same year.
“We’d like to see more women raise money for their cleantech products. We’re therefore trying to have more gender focused accelerators/programmes. We see a lot of women who are not necessarily getting the funding they need,” Malo expressed.
And the goal is not only to increase funding for women in clean tech but to amplify their voices too.
The future of CleanTech in Africa
Over the last few years, Africa has made concerted efforts to aid clean technology with renewable energy auctions in countries like Ghana, Mauritius, Zambia, Uganda and South Africa as well as an increase of deployment of renewable energy with more than 26GW of renewable-based power capacity installed. Pledges of $100 billion in renewables and $2 billion in environmental conservation and food systems made during the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference(COP26) prove that the only way to go is up.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Gear up for our next webinar
Following the hugely successful sessions on Climate Smart Agriculture and CleanTech, and Smart Cities (Founders Panel), we are eager to host an engaging second panel (Investors Panel) with Founders, Investors, and Supporting Institutions in Africa’s Smart Cities Ecosystem. Organized by VC4A and ABAN in collaboration with AEDIB|NET, our objective is to provide the platform for exchanging best practices and sharing lessons learned to strengthen and support Africa’s digital innovation and startup ecosystems.
Register for the event here: https://t.co/B7NF7DinQU
Attend the EBAN Summit in Belgium
Get your tickets for this get together and be among more than 450 attendees looking to establish how startups and investors can leverage science to build global companies. Register here: http://europeanangelsummit.com
Have you ever attended the Tropics Business Summit?
The 6th annual edition of this summit kicks off in October. Plan to attend by booking your space here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/6th-annual-tropics-business-summit-praia-cabo-verde-2022-tickets-29140784771
Once again, this new month, we look forward to greater collaborations and growth in the sector. Till next month,
Fadilah Tchoumba
Secretary-General, ABAN
