Nigerian Firm Makes Bill Gates’ Top Five Cleantech Companies

By Emma Okonji

A Nigerian utility company, Arnergy, which recently raised $9 million in a Series A round of funding renewable energy systems has been listed by Bill Gates and Associates among top five Cleantech outfits that will help save the planet.

The plan of Bill Gates and his friends is to invest in scientific breakthroughs that have the potential to deliver cheap and reliable clean energy to the world. The ultimate goal is to shepherd new zero-emissions technologies to the market.

Since the inception of the firm seven years ago, its Founder and CEO, Mr. Femi Adeyemo has not only built an organisation that seamlessly creates solutions that make the environment safer, but has successfully built a brand that has got the attention of Bill Gates and his billionaires’ friends.

With this development, Adeyemo’s Arnergy broke the jinx, not just because it is a Nigerian firm but also due to the fact that most of Breakthrough Energy’s portfolio companies are located in the United States.

As quoted in a recent article published by Forbes: “Operating out of Lagos, Nigeria, Arnergy leases and sells what it calls solar energy systems—bulky cabinet-size apparatuses on wheels fitted with solar panels and batteries that essentially serve as solar-powered generators. The technical gear is accompanied by a software platform that allows clients to monitor and control their energy usage in real-time.”

“We’re only focused on investments that will have a substantial effect on climate change,” Gates told Forbes earlier this year.

Arnergy’s goal is to ensure that shops and banks can stay open even when the electric grid fails with its solutions.

According to the CEO, “Arnergy’s systems allow businesses in countries like Nigeria to pay for clean energy at the same or a lower price as traditional fossil-fuel sources. Each of our 5-kilowatt modular systems is displacing diesel and petrol generators on a daily basis.”

Since its launch, Arnergy has delivered over 3MW of installed capacity and over 9MWh of storage capacity to business and residential clients across Nigeria.

Adeyemo, who decided to start the business after seeing how the Middle East was using solar energy to power telecom towers, explained that Arnergy sells to both small businesses and large enterprise data centres and has deployed 600 systems to customers that include the Nigerian branches of Citibank and KPMG, as well as industrial conglomerate such Dangote Group.