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Nairobi-based solar irrigation company SunCulture has closed a $10 million securitisation of customer receivables with French asset manager Mirova.
The deal comprises a $10 million senior secured financing provided by the Mirova Gigaton Fund to a special purpose vehicle (SPV) set up specifically to acquire receivables originated by SunCulture’s Kenyan subsidiary. In an unusual deal, supported by Indian FinTech Kaleidofin, the security flows into a SPV that buys up the outstanding customer payments owed to SunCulture under its pay-as-you-go financing plans.
“This transaction breaks new ground for the productive-use energy sector in Africa. We are proud to have worked alongside SunCulture and Kaleidofin to develop an innovative financing structure that required significant technical expertise and close collaboration,” said Rim Azirar, Deputy Head of Emerging Market Energy Transition, Mirova.
Kaleidofin worked alongside SunCulture and Mirova to help structure and close the securitisation, with its ki score, cash-flow modelling and analytics platform used to select and monitor the receivables, while its Mauritius-based ki Platform PCC provided the securitisation infrastructure.
Founded in 2012, SunCulture designs, manufactures and finances solar-powered irrigation systems for smallholder farmers, and has sold more than 85,000 solar irrigation systems and pumps to date. The company has built its business on a “pay-as-you-grow” model that lets farmers pay for equipment through affordable instalments while bundling in insurance and warranty services, rather than requiring large upfront payments.
Compared with conventional irrigation methods, SunCulture claims its solar-powered system can increase crop yields by up to 300% and reduce water use by up to 80%. The company says it holds roughly half of the solar irrigation market in East Africa.
“Access to irrigation in Kenya has never been limited by farmer demand. It has been limited by the lack of affordable, scalable solutions. Solving that comes down to financing: whether it is available, what it costs, and how long it runs. This structure addresses all three and gives us the confidence to scale customer financing on long-term, FX-protected capital. Faster recycling of capital means more farmers irrigating sooner,” said Samir Ibrahim, co-founder and CEO of SunCulture.
By easing pressure on rainfed agriculture, which remains the norm across much of sub-Saharan Africa, SunCulture aims to help farmers build resilience against increasingly unpredictable rainfall while lifting household incomes. The securitisation will allow the company to recycle capital that had been tied up financing longer-dated customer receivables, freeing resources to expand access to its solar water pumps for smallholder farmers.
With the secured financing for SunCulture, Mirova and Kaleidofin see an opportunity to show that receivables from distributed, productive-use solar assets can be packaged and sold to institutional investors at scale, opening a new channel of long-term financing for climate-smart agriculture across Africa.
“Beyond supporting SunCulture’s continued growth, we believe this transaction can provide a replicable blueprint for other companies and help unlock new sources of long-term capital for productive-use energy and climate solutions across the continent,” Azirar added.
