SunCulture, a leading climate tech startup based in Kenya, has secured a substantial $12 million investment aimed at bolstering its solar irrigation solution across sub-Saharan Africa. This funding initiative is part of the company’s broader vision to provide hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers with access to Internet-of-Things (IoT)-enabled solar-powered irrigation systems by the year 2030.
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The strategic equity investment stems from a significant partnership between InfraCo Africa, a subsidiary of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), and Savant Group Ltd. Notable participants include Acumen Funds, Reed Hastings, and Eric Schmidt.
Operating in Kenya, Uganda, and Ivory Coast, with distribution agreements in Ethiopia, Zambia, and Togo, SunCulture operates on a “Pay-As-You-Grow” model, facilitating broader accessibility to its innovative solutions.
This Series B round, comprising a combination of equity, debt, grants, and carbon financing, elevates the total investment in the climate tech company to $65 million since its inception. It significantly advances SunCulture’s ambitious objective of raising $219 million to deploy 274,000 solar irrigation systems across Kenya.
SunCulture focuses on empowering farmers to enhance their production capacity, especially in regions heavily reliant on rainfed agriculture or carbon-emitting diesel and petrol pumps. By offering a sustainable alternative, the company aims to reduce dependence on seasonal rainfall and mitigate the environmental impact of fuel-based pumps.
The solar irrigation solution provided by SunCulture comprises small-scale solar-powered water pumps, which are partially subsidized by the sale of carbon credits, making them up to half the cost of traditional fuel-based pumps. Designed for smallholdings ranging from 1 to 3 acres, these pumps can deliver up to 1,200 liters of water per hour.
Despite the vast potential for irrigation to boost agricultural productivity, only a small fraction of small-scale farmers in Africa have access to such systems. With this substantial investment infusion, SunCulture is poised to further its mission of revolutionizing agriculture across Africa and promoting sustainable farming practices.
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