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Uganda’s gnuGrid Raises $612K As It Pivots From Solar To Fintech

July 22, 2022

Ugandan company gnuGrid has raised US$612,500 in seed funding as it pivots its product offering to scale in the financial market.

Solar Sentra, developed by gnuGrid, a company founded in 2019 by David Opio and James Dailey, aims to simplify and automate the very heterogeneous solar energy sector in Uganda and elsewhere by using artificial intelligence-enhanced sensors to track solar systems and collect energy consumption data, which solar plant operators use to design tailored services.

To make solar business operations more efficient and cost-effective, gnuGrid has combined this technology with digital payments, predictive analytics, consumer profiling, and data tracking, among other things.

The firm began a campaign this year, according to media reports in February, which later ended up closing at $612,500. The funds come from a group of retail investors and amount to an initial valuation of $6.25 million for gnuGrid.

In 2019, the small company raised 50,000 US dollars to build its technological tool, pilot it, and launch it on the market.

However, its product line has recently changed, with gnuGrid announcing its metamorphosis into a licenced credit reference bureau in order to assist many informal and formal financial institutions in removing the constraints they experience as investors and to provide a prestige shield in favour of customers or borrowers who use credit in the last mile.

The seed money will be utilised to establish cutting-edge data hosting servers and a customer care centre, hire personnel, build the CRB platform, and develop sales and marketing strategies.

gnuGrid solar fintech gnuGrid solar fintech

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Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh

Ugandan Off-Grid Startup gnuGrid Raises $50k seed funding

November 27, 2019

Ugandan pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar startup gnuGrid Africa has raised US$50,000 in seed capital to further develop its tech, pilot, and expand into the market.

“There are over 500 solar companies in Uganda alone attempting to provide energy to 33 million people living in off-grid communities across the country. We are currently active with 10 companies with pending contracts with 20 other companies in the pipeline. Our target is to have at least 25 per cent of the entire Ugandan solar provider market in the next two years,” David Opio, co-founder of gnuGrid said.

Here Is All You Need To Know

The startup raised US$50,000 in seed funding as a convertible note from two investors over the course of August and September to help it further develop and test its technology, and has also started on a Series A round in a bid to take on a further US$500,000 investment.
Launched earlier this year by David Opio and James Dailey, gnuGrid has built Solar Sentra, which aims to streamline and automate the highly fragmented solar industry in Uganda and beyond by using AI-optimised sensors to monitor solar systems and collect data on power usage which is used by solar companies to tailor service delivery.
gnuGrid bundles this hardware with digital payments, predictive analytics, customer profiling and data management, among others, to help solar companies operate more efficiently at lower cost.

About gnuGrid

gnuGrid, which charges solar companies an annual subscription fee and a monthly customer management fee, has just completed its pilot phase and converted those companies previously on the pilot into paying customers.
Opio said there had been an “overwhelmingly positive reception” to Solar Sentra, with initial customers having a good experience and referring gnuGrid. Its current 10 customers — solar companies — have a total of nearly 150,000 solar product installations in the market. There is plenty of room for expansion in Uganda alone.

“Our strategy is to consolidate the Ugandan market and ground ourselves, followed by the East African market and other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the future, we are hoping to customise the solution to other energy forms like wind power and e-bikes, that are prevalent in other areas like Europe so that we can diversify and extend our reach.”

He said gnuGrid’s service offering differed from other providers in the market in both pricing and capabilities, with the concept of credit-scoring to filter out high-risk customers unique to its solution.

“We leverage strong data analytics to prompt actions on the part of operators to better manage equipment and customers. Another unique point is the focus on solar system monitoring which includes energy metering and sensing to detect system overloads so as to warn users and collect data about potential upgrades,” Opio said.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world