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South Africa’s Nafasi Water Technologies has received $9.77 million (R160 million) in funding from Norfund, the Norwegian Investment Fund for developing countries. The deal also includes a follow-on commitment from E Squared Investments, which had backed the company in an earlier round. The two investors are betting on Nafasi’s ability to scale its waste-to-value manufacturing and project finance businesses.
Founded in 2003 and formerly known as Aveng Water, Nafasi designs, funds, builds, and runs water treatment facilities for mining companies and public sector clients across Southern Africa, including large-scale seawater desalination projects such as the Erongo Desalination Project in Namibia.
It differs from conventional water utility companies by offering a technology stack that goes beyond water treatment. It can extract commercially useful chemicals from the sludge and effluent generated during water processing, creating a circular economy that turns waste into value.
The company will use the funding to rehabilitate water catchments in mining-affected areas, expand water reuse infrastructure at the municipal level, and advance technologies for complex water reclamation. Beyond these three priorities, the investment will also help Nafasi create skilled employment opportunities in Southern Africa, particularly in regions like Mpumalanga, where investment in alternative sectors is needed as the region grapples with the pending closures of large coal-fired power plants.
“We have been successful in deploying project-financed solutions to long-run, mining-impacted water rehabilitation projects. Consequently, it was a natural progression for Nafasi to move into the Public Private partnership space and we are now actively engaged in PPP bids for wastewater treatment and reuse,” said Suzie Nkambule, CEO of Nafasi Water.
Africa’s water challenge has been decades in the making. The underinvestment in water infrastructure, combined with the pollution of rivers and over-extraction of groundwater in already water-stressed areas, has resulted in a crisis that affects all aspects of life in the region. The solution requires both private capital and public commitment, and that forms the basis for this funding.
Carl Johan Wahlund, Senior Vice President for Green infrastructure at Norfund, said, “Nafasi’s management team has a proven track record in delivering complex projects, and we believe it is well positioned to scale effectively and capture new opportunities in an interesting market. We are also happy to be supporting a tech leader that also develops local expertise.”
“As an existing shareholder in Nafasi, we have seen first-hand the strength of the company’s technical capabilities and its commitment to tackling complex water challenges such as acid mine drainage and wastewater reuse. Our follow-on investment reflects our confidence in the management team and in Nafasi’s ability to deliver complex infrastructure projects that strengthen water resilience in the region,” said Gladwyn Leeuw, CEO of E Squared Investments.
Nafasi has spent years building the technological foundation to address water insecurity across Southern Africa, and it now has two experienced investors behind it to scale that work.
The company has already strengthened its engineering and project delivery capacity ahead of what promises to be a capital-intensive growth phase. If its model holds at scale, Nafasi could become a template for how private enterprise addresses the continent’s infrastructure gaps.
