Renewable energy venture builder, Persistent Energy Capital LLC, has successfully completed its series C fundraising round, closing with $10 million.
The fundraise had leading participation from investment firms like Kyuden International Corporation, which is a subsidiary of the Japanese Kyushu Electric Power Group, and Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Africa Investments.
Other participants in the fundraise include Kotaro Tamura, and other private investors. Existing investors like BK Ventures, BV and DPI Energy Ventures, also reinvested.
Persistent Energy is in the business of helping startups to build businesses that can scale from the point of an idea, to the stage of early growth. The company does its function by investing capital, and human resources in the fresh startups. In some occasions, Persistent Energy has its team members go into collaborative work with the management teams of its portfolio companies.
The company currently has 20 portfolio companies spread across 17 countries in Africa. Persistent Energy has, so far, recorded two exits.
Speaking on the fundraise, Tobias Ruckstuhl, Persistent Energy’s managing director, said the company will channel the funds into growing its business in Sub-Saharan Africa, and push for the adoption of clean energy in the continent.
“Many more companies need to be started and built-in order to reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the next 10 years. Kyuden and FSDAi are committed to our entrepreneurial climate venture building model. By leveraging these powerful partnerships, we will be able to accelerate our most pioneering venture building investments, driving the transition to clean energy, promoting e-mobility and finding innovative business models and technological developments across the continent,” Ruckstuhl said in a statement.
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Speaking on the fundraise, the head of the business division at the Kyuden International Corp.’s Tokyo branch office, Masashi Mizoguchi, added:
“Persistent delivers thought leadership and distinctive capabilities in the earliest stage climate investments across Sub-Saharan Africa. By fostering the growth of clean energy and transportation, our relationship with Persistent will enable us to realize the ‘Kyuden Group Carbon Neutral Vision 2050’ more quickly.“