Qotto designs and distributes standalone solar kits and lanterns to individuals residing in the least electrified regions of Africa. Through a pay-to-own model , it avails its products to individuals in sub-Saharan Africa that are off-grid owing to underdeveloped national power grids.
Qotto, a solar kits provider with operations in Burkina Faso and Benin, has raised $8 million in a Series A equity-debt round led by the IBL group, a billion-dollar conglomerate headquartered in Mauritius with business interests in several sectors including energy, financial services, logistics, distribution and engineering.
Qotto says IBL is drawing its roadmap for East Africa expansion too, after signing a partnership and agreeing to offer off-grid solutions in the region. The expansion, to take place by September this year, will happen alongside that of IBL, which is planning “to strengthen its position in East Africa and to develop its renewable energies exposure.”
The planned financial services include micro-insurance, micro-credit and micro-savings products, designed in collaboration with partners such as SUNU, a large insurer in West Africa. Qotto said it has already sold thousands of life insurance contracts.
Renewable energy solutions by companies like Qotto are bridging the energy access gap in the least electrified countries like South Sudan, Burundi, Chad, Malawi, Burkina Faso, Madagascar and Tanzania, all located in sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for 75% of the world’s population with no access electricity.