MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Gaia Impact Fund Invests Equity in Innovex, Solar Technology Distributor in East Africa, DRC

Gaia Impact Fund, which is based in France and focuses on renewable energy, recently agreed to place a seed equity investment in Innovex, a Uganda-based technology firm that is active in solar power in five African countries. The terms of the investment have not been released.

Innovex was founded in 2015 by Douglas Baguma and David Tusubira. Its business is “the distribution of off-grid solar energy systems and equipment using digital tools.” Among its products is Remot, which allows solar energy companies to monitor and control their systems remotely. Innovex is active in DRC, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda as of 2021. Its goal is to serve solar distributors providing energy to 10 million households in 15 African countries by 2022.

Created in 2019, Gaia invests in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. The firm has 11 investees and 6 staff members as of 2021. Financial data on the firm are not available.

By Tejas Gumudavelly, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

Kampala Post article
https://kampalapost.com/index.php/content/ugandan-startup-raises-funding-french-impact-fund-expand-operations

Gaia Impact Fund homepage
https://gaia-impactfund.com

Innovex homepage
https://www.innovex.org

Do you know that MicroCapital publishes the MicroCapital Monitor newspaper each month? Find out more at https://www.microcapital.org/products-page/.