MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Spark+Africa Fund Raises $40m in Equity from Public, Private Investors for Clean Cookstove Industry in Sub-Saharan Africa

The Spark+Africa Fund, an investor in cookstoves that create less pollution and use less fuel, recently launched with a total of USD 40 million invested by 12 organizations. Spark+ invests across the value chain for these stoves and the fuel they use, including in producers, distributors and retail funders such as microfinance institutions. The investors include the African Development Bank; the Danish government’s IFU, which is also known as the Investment Fund for Developing Countries; and the Belgian government’s BIO, which is also known as the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries (and placed USD 3 million in Spark+). The other investors are four Swiss pension funds and the following foundations and family offices: Ceniarth, Osprey Foundation, Fundacion Netri and the Ashden Trust.

Spark+ was created by the US-based Clean Cooking Alliance (CCA), the Switzerland-based investor Enabling Qapital, and the Netherlands-based Stichting Modern Cooking to assist companies in sub-Saharan Africa that “offer life-improving biomass, biogas, ethanol, electric, and LPG-based cooking technologies to low-income consumers.”

By Adhya Singh, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

Spark+Africa Fund press release
https://www.sparkafricafund.com/_files/ugd/551d1b_2114ff5b7f25403ba75958b28a4585bc.pdf

BIO press release
https://www.bio-invest.be/en/investments/spark-africa-fund

Spark+Africa Fund homepage
https://www.sparkafricafund.com/

BIO homepage
https://www.bio-invest.be/

BIO 2021 development and sustainability report
https://www.bio-invest.be/files/BIO-invest/Our-Impact/BIO-SustainabilityReport-2021.pdf

BIO 2020 annual report
https://www.bio-invest.be/files/BIO-invest/About-BIO/Annual-Report/2020/BIOAnnualReport2020_EN.pdf

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