Partnerships
We’re all about the power of partnerships - it is a UN Sustainable Development Goal in its own right. By partnering with like-minded organisations, who share our ambition to help more people to access clean and reliable energy, we’ve been able to achieve amazing things.
Founding Partners
Ethex
Ethex helps everyday people make ethical investments that fund extraordinary organisations. It lists investment opportunities from pioneering grassroots community organisations as well as ethical profit-for-purpose businesses, connecting them with everyday people who want to use the transformative power of money as fuel for change.
Over the past eight years, Ethex and its sister platform Energise Africa (jointly owned by Ethex and Lendahand) have enabled more than 20,000 people to invest from just £50 in 200+ projects, providing them with more than £100 million in people-powered finance that they critically need to do great things, such as building new renewable energy projects, providing more affordable housing, supporting sustainable transport infrastructure, creating sustainable food and agriculture projects, providing vital community services and accelerating renewable energy access across sub-Saharan Africa. When investing via the Ethex platform your capital is at risk and returns are not guaranteed
Lendahand
Lendahand is a Dutch-based profit-for-purpose company that is on a mission to eradicate poverty all over the world using crowdfunding. Individual investors across Europe can invest in people and businesses in emerging markets that don’t have access to the capital they desperately need. Lendahand uses its crowdfunding platform to connect European investors to those entrepreneurs with limited investment options, helping to facilitate the movement of growth capital across continents with ease.
Founded in 2015 the organisation, Lendahand is B Corp certified and has raised more than €100 million of investment from 7,000+ investors across both the Lendahand and Energise Africa platform (which is jointly owned by Lendahand and Ethex). When investing via the Lendahand platform your capital is at risk and returns are not guaranteed.
Funding Partners
UK aid
Energise Africa is supported by UK aid with the objective to accelerate progress towards the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 – to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. This support has been instrumental in ensuring the success of Energise Africa with UK aid providing:
Grant funding to support the development of Energise Africa to enable crowdfunding of enterprises bringing clean energy and generating employment in African countries.
Provide match funding for some Energise Africa project, effectively co-investing alongside UK-based investors, thereby enabling the public to steer the flow of a proportion of UK aid funding and boosting the overall impact on the ground
Good Energies Foundation
Good Energies Foundation is a Swiss-based private foundation. It was established in 2007 as an integral part of Good Energies Inc., a private equity company that specialises in investing in the renewable energy and energy-efficiency industries.
Good Energies Foundation is supporting Energise Africa by providing some first-loss protection, match funding and other financial incentives to a number of projects, helping to maximise the impact of clean energy access on the ground for families in Sub-Saharan Africa, whilst de-risking investments for the crowd.
P4G
P4G – Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030 – is a new network of global leaders and innovators seeking breakthrough solutions for green economic growth. The initiative commenced in 2018 with the ambition of becoming the world’s leading forum for developing concrete public-private partnerships at scale to deliver on the SDGs and the Paris Climate Agreement. P4G brings together business, government, and civil society organisations in innovative public-private partnerships to advance solutions that help meet humanity’s greatest needs in five key areas: food and agriculture, water, energy, cities and circular economy.
P4G has invested a total of US $944,343 in start-up funding in 2018 and scale up funding in 2020. The partnership aims to demonstrate how UK-based retail impact investors can provide affordable finance for pioneering solar businesses operating in Africa to accelerate universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. P4G
Other partnerships, affiliations and memberships
Energy 4 Impact
Energy 4 Impact is a UK non-profit with a business approach to tackling energy poverty. Energy 4 Impact supports the development of a broad range of small businesses and project companies in the energy economy so they can provide communities with access to energy at affordable prices. With an emphasis on mentoring and advisory services, Energy 4 Impact helps businesses access capital, technology and operational advice so they can become profitable and sustainable.
Energy 4 Impact has partnered with Energise Africa to manage UK Aid’s funding, introduce potential borrowers to the platform and provide them with advice, and monitor the initiative’s impact.
Global Off Grid Lighting Association
GOGLA is the global association for the off-grid solar energy industry. Established in 2012, GOGLA now represents over 180 members (of which Energise Africa is one) as a neutral independent, not for profit industry associations whose services are to assist the industry to build sustainable markets and profitable businesses delivering quality, affordable off-grid electricity products and services to as many customers as possible across the developing world.
Terra Carta
Energise Africa is proud to support the #TerraCarta from HRH The Prince of Wales’ Sustainable Markets Initiative. The Terra Carta provides a roadmap to 2030 for businesses to move towards an ambitious and sustainable future; one that will harness the power of nature combined with the transformative power, innovation and resources of the private sector.
The global business proposition outlines ten areas for action and comprises of nearly 100 actions for business as the basis of a recovery plan that puts nature, people and planet at the heart of global value creation.
