Cleantech Qotto raises $8m funding on growth plan 

By Rosemary Iwuala

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 a number of sectors including energy, financial services, logistics, distribution, and engineering. The Off-Grid Energy Access Fund (FEI-OGEF), Cordaid, and Qotto’s existing investors also participated in the round.

The development,according to Qotto, aims at enhancing its plans to scale in existing markets, and expand to Ivory Coast where it is set to begin operations by next month.

Founded in 2016, Qotto designs, distributes, leases and maintains stand-alone solar home systems 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 develops the autonomy of the rural households in Africa, providing access to electricity through solar panels. It helps transform the daily lives of the customers by installing these solar kits to help achieve their dreams. By offering electric autonomy, it provides great flexibility and quality customer service. It also provides access to the Internet using alternative network (Radio) and provides Nano financial services to underserved population Qotto, which serves tens of thousands of customers in Sub Saharan Africa.

Jean-Baptiste Lenoir, Qotto co-founder and president, said , “For Ivory Coast, due to its consistent pace of development relative to the broader West Africa region, and after having tested and optimized operations and services in Benin and Burkina Faso, Qotto is well prepared for a market entry. Moreover, the customers who have been able to test the Qotto products in the country, have expressed a need and desire to see Qotto enter the Ivory Coast market,”

“Together, we see a great opportunity for the essential services and large Solar Home Systems offerings provided by Qotto,” said Lenoir.

“In sub-Saharan Africa, 650M people do not have access to electricity. 550M do not have access to the Internet and 800M do not have access to financial services. Many of these customers are overlapping in their needs for off-grid solutions, connectivity and financial services,” he added.

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 which is 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 growth bid follows the planned introduction of new products in the market, including financial services and internet access hotspots, as Qotto evolves into an all-rounded essential services operator.

“Our edge is that our presence in rural areas allows us to understand the customers and their needs so that we can propose innovative products based on our technical platform,” Lenoir said.

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.

The internet hotspots will be located in high-foot traffic areas like the shops, restaurants or bars.

“Our model helps to solve these critical issues under a single solution – which we call “essential services”, backed by our proprietary technology stack. In addition, we are aligned with the SDGs to serve customers and improve impact indicators in our markets,” he said.

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.