The Sun Exchange equity crowdfunding campaign launched in September in partnership with Uprise.Africa, has officially come to a close.
Sun Exchange, a global solar micro-leasing marketplace, said in a statement is delighted to report that over R4.2 million was invested by 288 individuals from across the world.
“We’re thrilled that this community of new investors will be joining Sun Exchange on our mission to connect the world to the sun, bringing affordable and clean energy to emerging markets,” said the company.
The Uprise.Africa campaign formed part of our seed funding round. To date, with the success of this latest campaign, we’ve now raised over $1 million which includes a $ 500,000 (about R7 million) seed investment by Alphabit, a multi-million-dollar hedge fund.
“In what can only be described as a true global effort to support our mission, confirmed investments were made by individuals from the United Kingdom, Nigeria, Germany, many parts of Europe, Kenya, Australia and even Brazil,” the company said.
“Unsurprisingly, South Africans showed the most support during the campaign, by investing over R2.5 million, 59% of the total raised, and by representing 70% of all investors. The largest investments were made by a Norwegian and two South Africans, with a total of R835,000 invested between them.”
By buying equity in Sun Exchange, the company said these individuals are now part of its world-wide movement that is working to transform the world’s energy economy while enabling them to benefit.
“They also will share our journey of expansion into the rest of the globe, where we look forward to broadening the social and environmental impacts of our work by solar powering more schools, clinics, retirement homes, and businesses across Sub-Saharan Africa and other emerging markets,” the company said.
“While we did not achieve the R7 million goal set for the Uprise.Africa campaign, the fact that the campaign quickly reached the R3 million success milestone, signalled significant appetite from individual investors to own equity in Sun Exchange, a fast-growing, U.S.-based company operating in South Africa.”
Sun Exchange has grown into a globally significant brand, bringing in investors such as Boost VC, Alphabit, Techstars, as well as numerous individual U.S. and E.U. investors.
Sun Exchange is renowned as technology and renewable energy leader across Africa. Since launching in 2015, the company has built a community of more than 8,000 Sun Exchange members across approximately 140 countries and brought solar power to 13 South African schools, businesses and organisations, offsetting 1,500 tonnes of carbon per year, and growing.
It has received extensive accolades for its unique approach to solar finance, including being named one of Fast Company Magazine’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Africa, and is listed among Africa’s “Energy Elites” by ESI Africa for the last two years running.
