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DOB Equity, a Dutch family-backed impact investor focused on East Africa, has invested in Irrisol Engineering, a Ugandan company building solar-powered water systems for underserved rural and peri-urban communities.
Based in Nairobi and the Netherlands, DOB Equity did not disclose the size of the investment. The capital is meant to help Irrisol strengthen its operations and expand its network of community water mini-grids beyond Western Uganda, where the company currently operates, so that more households can access reliable water close to home.
“I believe access to reliable water should not depend on where someone lives or how much they earn. Irrisol’s journey has been about proving that sustainable, financially viable rural water systems are possible and that communities can be served with dignity while building infrastructure that lasts,” said Joash Bwambale, founder and CEO of Irrisol Engineering.
Founded in 1997, DOB Equity is a family-backed impact investor that provides capital to innovative and scalable businesses across East Africa, with a focus on sustainable food systems, energy, and water and sanitation services.
The firm said the deal falls squarely within water and sanitation, one of its three core investment pillars and reflects its preference for backing “locally developed and commercially viable solutions that improve access to essential services while strengthening communities’ resilience to climate-related water challenges.”
“Joash is exactly the type of founder we back: a local entrepreneur solving a problem he lived himself. Balancing commercial returns with genuine impact is never easy, but Joash has cracked this with water minigrids and standalone systems embedded directly in rural communities, paired with pay-as-you-go plans that align payments with household incomes and make clean water genuinely accessible,” said Cikü Mugambi, Investment Director at DOB Equity.
“More than 400 million Africans still lack access to safe drinking water, and we’re proud to support Joash with capital and hands-on partnership as he takes this model across Uganda and beyond,” Mugambi added.
Founded in Uganda in 2017 by Bwambale, a water and irrigation engineer, Irrisol designs, builds and operates solar-powered water mini-grids across Western Uganda, delivering water directly to households and community taps through solar-powered pumps, consumption-based billing and mobile-money payments.
Alongside its community mini-grids, the company runs a contracting business installing standalone solar-powered water systems for schools, hospitals, businesses and households, a hybrid model that DOB Equity said combines recurring utility revenues with contracting income to keep the business financially sustainable.
Access to safe water remains a significant challenge in rural Uganda, where many households still travel long distances to distant water sources, a burden disproportionately affecting women and children. The existing rural water systems, meanwhile, often struggle to stay functional over time because of inadequate maintenance, poor infrastructure design and limited sustainable financing.
Irrisol addresses this by running feasibility studies on water sources before building a system and by regularly inspecting and maintaining systems once they are operational. To date, Irrisol has built 14 community mini-grids and more than 600 standalone systems, reaching roughly 350,000 people.
“Partnering with DOB Equity gives us the capital, expertise and long-term partnership we need to replicate our model in more communities across Uganda. Together, we have an opportunity to demonstrate that rural water infrastructure can be both an essential public service and a sustainable enterprise, ultimately bringing reliable, affordable water to millions more people,” Bwambale added.
DOB Equity said Irrisol will use the capital to expand its mini-grid network across the Rwenzori region and into other parts of Uganda. Beyond household water access, the company is also exploring productive uses of water, such as irrigation and fish farming, that could support local food systems and livelihoods in the communities it serves.
