APA-Dakar (Senegal) After Burkina Faso, Benin and Côte d’Ivoire, Qotto, the innovative operator of essential services has raised 8 million euros in capital for a funding round led by IBL Group to finance the acceleration of its activities across West Africa.
Since 2016, Qotto has been designing and distributing decentralised infrastructures to provide access to electricity, the Internet and financial services in rural and peri-urban areas of sub-Saharan Africa.
With its flagship product, autonomous solar kits are adapted to the needs of the inhabitants of off-grid areas.
Qotto completes its offer with services in the field of off-grid solar energy with two other types of products: Wifi hotspots for Internet access and financial services, based on its proprietary platform integrating IoT bricks, fintech and cleantech.
For the year 2022, Qotto is posting an annual 50 percent growth in its turnover, with a solid base of 11,000 active customers. The company is present in Burkina Faso, Benin and Ivory Coast.
New funding round of 8 million euros to finance activities in West Africa
The financing agreement is a mixture of debt and equity, which will be used by Qotto to develop its operations in West Africa, expand its distribution network and improve its services, extend its geographical presence and reach 25,000 active customers by the end of 2023.
“We are very pleased to welcome new investors and to extend our model of access to essential services, capitalising on our modular solar systems and thus providing our customers with Internet connectivity and mobile financial services. IBL brings to Qotto more than 100 years of industrial and commercial experience in Africa. Their investment and the signing of this partnership confirm the relevance of our business model, designed to provide essential services to the most vulnerable populations,” says Jean-Baptiste Lenoir, President and co-founder of Qotto.
In addition to the capital investment and the contribution of the Mauritian conglomerate’s expertise in Africa, Qotto and the IBL Group have signed a partnership to deploy Qotto’s solar home systems in countries in East Africa.
“We are delighted to be part of what promises to be an exciting journey to change the lives of rural families in Africa alongside the founders and teams of Qotto. In doing so, we will benefit from their unique know-how. With its solutions with a strong social, environmental and financial impact on a growing Africa, Qotto perfectly complements the solutions portfolio of IBL Energy, whose core business is solutions for companies in the commercial and industrial segments,” says Pierre. Egot, Managing Director of IBL Energy.
Based in Mauritius, Groupe IBL is a conglomerate with a turnover of one billion dollars, present particularly in the energy, financial services, logistics, distribution and engineering sectors.
The Off-grid Energy Access Fund (FEI-OGEF) and Cordaid have also joined forces with the main investor and alongside the historical shareholders of Qotto.
StratLink Africa was the exclusive advisor on the transaction, with support from the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF).
CP/as/APA