Clean Cooking Alliance Adds Five Companies to its Venture Catalyst Program
May 5, 2022 – The Clean Cooking Alliance (CCA) has expanded its Venture Catalyst program, adding five companies in West Africa to its existing portfolio. As an industry development initiative, the Venture Catalyst helps entrepreneurs build innovative and scalable companies that accelerate clean cooking access.
The companies joining the Venture Catalyst (VC) – Powerstove Energy, Safi Energy, NENU Engineering, Southline Coast, and Goods and Services 360 – are based in Ghana and Nigeria and range from pre-revenue to early-stage enterprises. They will join CCA’s existing portfolio of 25 companies, which operate in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and South-East Asia and represent a diverse range of fuels and technologies, such as LPG, biogas, ethanol, electricity, pellets, and improved biomass stoves.
“We are looking forward to supporting our new portfolio companies through grants, technical assistance, and network support,” said Shrikant Avi, CCA’s Director of Venture Programs. “These early-stage companies are developing promising solutions that have the potential to generate consumer demand and drive investment to increase clean cooking access in West Africa.”
Launched in 2020, the Venture Catalyst offers tailored, venture-level assistance to strengthen commercial viability, enhance investment readiness, and speed up access to growth capital for selected companies across the clean cooking ecosystem. To date, the Venture Catalyst has initiated over 60 projects in 15 countries, partnering with companies to address needs such as product testing and development, sales and consumer insights, market scoping and feasibility studies, supply chain analysis, operational improvements, business model validation, investment readiness, carbon monetization, and gender integration.
About the new VC companies:
Powerstove Energy is an improved biomass smart cookstove company in Nigeria. Operating for four years, they have demonstrated growth in their production volumes of stoves and pellets. They have also created a consumer financing scheme to address the affordability barrier. As one of the first local manufacturers of pellets, Powerstove Energy reports volumes of two tons a day. They also recently upgraded their factory to increase their rate of stove manufacturing, which now produces 7,000 stoves every month.- Safi Energy is an LPG company based in Nigeria. They are seeking to address the limitations of the metered pay-as-you-go model and the necessity for low-cost meter development, as well as to address high customer acquisition costs through innovative “off balance-sheet” financing structures. Safi Energy is in the pre-revenue stage and has a promising founding team with deep technical and commercial experience, rich knowledge of the Nigerian market, and strong partnerships in the industry.
NENU Engineering is a Nigerian improved biogas cookstoves company that utilizes user-centric designs, modern manufacturing techniques, and locally sourced materials to deliver cookstoves that appeal to target households. A social impact enterprise, NENU Engineering also provides training and mentorship to cookstove manufacturers across Africa.- Southline Coast is a Ghanaian bioethanol startup. They have an ambitious and innovative business model for a “farm to kitchen” vertically integrated bioethanol business, including agriculture for feedstock, distillery, stove assembly, and fuel distribution. The company is building a robust supply chain for processing cassava into bioethanol, with the aim of creating a thriving clean cooking market capable of reaching West Africa’s 380 million people.
Goods and Services 360 is an early-stage startup from Nigeria, digitizing the last-mile distribution of LPG across Africa. Their mobile-based digital solution removes inefficiencies by connecting informal last-mile retailers to bulk LPG distributors and small-to-medium-sized food enterprises. Goods and Services 360 has an experienced team of founders with a deep understanding of the LPG market and a clear roadmap to tackle last-mile distribution through innovative technologies that could eliminate African businesses’ dependence on firewood and charcoal.
CCA welcomes inquiries about admission to the Venture Catalyst program. Please email your questions or management presentation request to ventures@cleancooking.org.
