El proyecto

Basic Information:

Issuer: Azuri SSPV 1 Ltd.
Currency: EUR
Amount: 115,000 (senior debt)
Maturity: 24 months, semi-anually and linearly amortizing
Interest rate: 6% p.a.

Non-recall period: N.A. issuer is allowed to repay the loan early at all times against a 2% penalty fee on the amount prepaid. 

Direct loan

This is a direct loan to a company (rather than lending to a financial institution) and therefore it is recommendable that you are careful with the amount you will invest.  

Available documents
Information document
InRisc credit analysis

The project (part II of II)

Azuri has partnered with leading home entertainment satellite provider, Zuku, to deliver the first pay-as-you-go satellite TV package for households without electricity in the Kenyan market, complete with:

• 24-inch super slim LED TV
• Zuku SMART+ Satellite TV Service with 54 TV and 21 radio channels
• 4x high brightness LED lamps, for use inside and outside the home
• Mobile phone charger
• Portable radio

With a loan of EUR 115,000 Azuri is able to distribute the first batch of 500 complete pay-as-you-go satellite TV packages to families in Kenya. 

Summary

A spinout from Cambridge University, Azuri Technologies is an innovative commercial provider of pay-as- you-go (“PayGo”) solar home systems to rural off-grid households. The company has one of the widest geographical reach of any solar-as- a-service offering in Sub Saharan Africa, and addresses the problem of energy access that affects over 600 million people who lack access to the grid across the continent.

See an item with Azuri on BBC news

Azuri has combined solar and mobile technology to allow customers to access power on a PayGo basis, providing affordable, clean and safe renewable energy for as little as half the cost of the fossil fuels being replaced. As a pioneer of PayGo solar power when it first entered the Kenyan market in 2012, Azuri has since expanded its reach to 12 African countries, and has sold over 100,000 systems to-date, which are expected to impact more than half a million people.

We are aiming to raise working capital loans to invest alongside Azuri, which will allow us to manufacture and deliver solar home systems to our local in-country distribution partners, including Azuri subsidiaries, more efficiently and faster. The loan will be repaid in 4 semi-annual instalments over a 24-month period from the sales receipts of these systems. These systems are expected to improve energy access for thousands of people across Sub Saharan Africa where more than 600 million persons do not benefit from grid electricity.

Impact

Solar home systems have been shown to have a significant impact on customers and the environment. This has been confirmed by Azuri’s own research over the years. To-date, Azuri has sold more than 100,000 across Africa, benefiting approximately half a million lives (assuming an average household size of 5 persons).

‘My air quality has improved’ (96%)
“My family’s previous kerosene-related health issues have reduced” (98%)
“I feel safer” (93%)
“My children can study more” (97%)
“The money I save on kerosene, batteries, and candles I mainly use for my children’s education” (37%)
“I have more evening home visits from family and friends” (68%)
“I save significant time on fetching fuel and getting my phone charged”
“I can spend more time working”

Using industry-recognised Global Off-Grid Lighting Association (GOGLA) impact metrics, Azuri has calculated the social and environmental impact of installing one of its Quad systems in a household as follows:

• Average number of people benefiting from improved energy access = 5
• Average household change in additional available hours of light = 4 hours
• Average household savings on energy over solar product lifetime = USD 200
• CO2 gas emissions offset per unit over product lifetime = 1.2 tonnes

Management team

Alan Harper (Chairman of the board) - Alan is a leading figure in the mobile network industry with particular involvement in African markets. Alan is a Non-Executive director at MTN, Africa’s largest telecoms provider. In 2008 Alan co-founded ‘Eaton Towers’ a leading independent telecom provider in Africa, with the most diversified geographical tower portfolio, installing over 5,000 telecom towers cross seven African countries.

Simon Bransfield-Garth (CEO) - Simon has 25 years’ global experience building rapid growth, technology based businesses in sectors including Semiconductor, Automotive and Mobile Phones including 7 years at Symbian, where he was a member of the Leadership Team and VP Global Marketing. Simon was founder of Myriad Solutions Ltd and was previously a Fellow at Cambridge University where he also received his BA and PhD in Engineering.

Snehar Shah (GM East Africa) - Snehar was most recently CFO Eaton Towers operations in East Africa. Previously he headed the Mobile Money Business unit or mobile operator Orange in Kenya, where he was responsible for the growth of the consumer service within the Kenyan market. Snehar has a first-class degree from Imperial College, London and was selected for the “Top 40 Under 40” in Kenya by Business Daily in 2012.

Vera Nwanze (GM East Africa) - Vera brings over 20 years commercial expertise, primarily in Multinational Pharmaceutical Companies (Novartis, GSK and Cipla-Evans) holding increasing positions in General Management, Regulatory Affairs, Clinical Research, Quality Assurance, Sales and Marketing across major Sub-Saharan Africa countries.

Nigel Preston (VP Product Management) - Nigel has 25 years’ global experience of embedded electronic systems development and manufacture. Previous positions include European Director of Engineering at Motorola Inc’s Automotive business and COO International Operations for Pi Shurlok. He holds a B.Eng. and Ph.D in Electronic Engineering from the University of Liverpool.

Liam Hickey (CFO) - Liam has significant experience in the establishment of new enterprises and the restructuring of established businesses to expand their global reach and make them more profitable, primarily within emerging markets. In addition to stints working in venture capital in East and West Africa, Liam has held senior commercial and operational finance positions in many multinational companies including Bertelsmann, Ericsson and Digicel.

Awards:

Edison Awards 2017 - Gold Award Winner 
GCCA 2016 - #1 International Cleantech Company
Solar + Power awards 2016 - Rural Electrification Development Award