Solar fridge maker expands operations in Nigeria

Koolboks, a renewable energy company providing accessible cold storage solutions to businesses, says it has secured 2.5 million dollars funding, to scale solar refrigeration across Africa.

Koolboks, in a statement on Thursday, said that the seed funding round was led by Aruwa Capital Management with participation from Acumen, Blue Earth Capital, All On, GSMA and other investors.

It said that Koolboks would deploy the capital to scale its expansion across Nigeria, including building its team to support its growing B2C business and construction of a local assembly facility in the country.

According to the statement, the company also opened an affiliate office in Kenya in July.

The Chief Executive Officer of Koolboks,
Ayoola Dominic said that poor energy access, high costs of buying and running generators, prevent many African businesses and households from accessing refrigeration when it is mostly needed.

“We believe that people can make their livelihoods and feed their families by relying on energy from natural resources, energy from the sun, wind and water that are abundant around us.

“We are excited to work with some of the world’s leading impact investors as we focus on empowering more users across countries in Africa and globally.

“Koolboks is also appreciative to partner with local impact investors such as Aruwa Capital Management, who understand the demand and market dynamics, having operated across the continent for many years, “Dominic said.

The Founder of Aruwa Capital Management, Adesuwa Rhodes said, “We are impressed with Koolboks’s innovative solution which goes far beyond food waste reduction.”

The foundeer added that the team’s laser focus on ensuring clean renewable energy in off-grid areas was crucial to the survival of many small businesses and sectors as well as fostering economic gender equality.

The founder said equitable access to clean and reliable energy was key to closing the gender economic gap across rural areas.

“We are excited to see Koolboks’ expansion continue to make economic equity a reality for millions of women across Africa, ” Rhodes said.

The founder said that millions of people in Africa and other emerging markets experience unreliable power access daily with the national power grid supply being erratic and inconsistent to both rural and urban households and businesses.

Rhodes said that for some, it was often difficult to conduct and operate activities to earn a living with most turning to small-scale, toxic diesel-fueled generators to provide electricity.

The founder said Koolboks was striving to enable nations meet the sustainable development goal seven and empower businesses across a range of sectors with its innovative cold storage solutions.

Koolboks was established in 2018 in France.

The company combines Africa’s abundant supply of the sun with water to create a solution that is able to generate refrigeration for up to four days in the absence of power and sunlight.

Koolboks has made it affordable to access continuous refrigeration by integrating a pay-as-you-go technology that enables individuals and small businesses to pay as low as 10 dollars a month to own an offgrid solar refrigerator.

Koolboks currently sells across 16 countries, 13 of them in sub-Saharan Africa