Dear valued stakeholder,
Husk closed the minigrid industry's largest-ever funding round
2023 marked a massive leap forward for Husk Power, with 2024 promising to be even more exciting for us and for the overall minigrid industry. In Q4, Husk closed a record $100 million Series D, the industry’s largest-ever capital raise, including both equity and long-term, affordable debt to fuel growth in India and Nigeria. The Series D was also a tangible first step to achieving our Africa Sunshot initiative announced at the Africa Climate Summit, which set a target of having 2,500 minigrids in Sub-Saharan Africa within 5 years. Husk had a high-profile presence at the G20 Summit and at COP, joining government, finance and climate leaders to press for greater support for the minigrid industry. Also in the last quarter of the year, we added to the long list of awards Husk received in 2023, including a prestigious Platts Global Energy Award for our energy transition work in the power sector, and the CHARGE Award for being the “World's Best Challenger Brand” in the energy industry. I also had the great honor of being named to the inaugural list of the TIME 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders in Business. There was also lots of great media coverage, including our leadership in Artificial Intelligence (see “In the News” below).
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Manoj Sinha, Co-Founder & CEO
MARKET FOCUS
At the Africa Climate Summit, Husk unveiled plans for 2,500 minigrids in 5 years
India was Husk’s first market and will remain a major source of low-risk, high-impact growth for the company. Based on our success in porting Husk’s business model to the world’s largest off-grid market Nigeria, the company has now also set its sights on scaling across Sub-Saharan Africa. At the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi in late 2023, Husk launched the Africa Sunshot initiative. The goal of the Sunshot is for Husk to have 2,500 minigrids in 6 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa within the next 5 years, including 1,000 minigrids in Nigeria, 500 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and 250 each in four additional countries to be chosen. Earlier in 2023, Husk invited governments in Least-Developed Countries (LDCs) in Sub-Saharan Africa to partner in scaling minigrids, and put forward a framework for doing so that would achieve the scale needed to both meet government and private developer objectives. We’re in discussions with multiple governments and partners to do exactly that.
FINANCIAL OUTLOOK
Husk started 2023 by becoming the first minigrid company to announce profitability. It book-ended the year by securing the largest-ever financing in the industry, over $100 million. An equity round of $43 million was led by STOA Infra & Energy, with participation by two other new investors, the US International Development Finance Corp. (DFC) and Proparco, as well as existing investors Shell Ventures, FMO and Swedfund. Husk also secured $60 million in debt from leading investors, including the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the European Investment Bank (EIB). The new funding will be used to grow Husk’s fleet 8-times by adding more than 1,400 new minigrids with a projected 300,000 new connections – one-third of them micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) – while avoiding 350,000 tonnes of CO2. Husk will also continue to build a world-class team and add 2,500 more employees, while expanding into new markets in Africa and Asia.
INDUSTRY LEADERSHIP
Husk won awards in 2023 for leadership in energy transition, AI, impact, climate & branding
CEO Manoj Sinha represented the minigrid industry at COP28 in Dubai, meeting with senior government leaders, including US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, ministers from several African countries, leading financiers (see below for his comments at a high-level World Bank event) and key partners like Power Africa, SEforALL, the International Solar Alliance and RMI. Husk can also now proudly say that it is the most award-winning company in the minigrid industry. In 2023 alone, we won 10 awards, being singled out for our leadership in climate, energy transition, technology innovation, impact and branding. In Q4, we won a Platts Global Energy Award (the “Oscars of the energy industry”) in the Energy Transition - Power category, beating out more than a dozen large multinationals, most of them Fortune 500 companies. CEO Manoj Sinha was also named one of the 100 most influential business leaders working on climate by TIME, just one of 20 “Innovators” on the list. Husk was also given a CHARGE Award for the energy industry’s “World’s Best Challenger Brand”, and was named Rural Brand of the Year in India.
IN THE NEWS
Below are highlights of recent Husk media coverage:
Reuters featured Husk Power for its innovation in Artificial Intelligence (AI). Latitude Media also wrote a more in-depth article on our use of AI.
Our $100 million financing received broad global coverage, including by Bloomberg, TechCrunch, Axios and CNBC Africa and CNBC India.
New investor DFC published a case study about Husk’s integrated energy platform.
CEO Manoj Sinha joined a World Bank session at COP28 on scaling up distributed renewable energy.
Husk was showcased in front of global leaders at the G20 Summit in India in an inspiring video that was also seen by tens of millions across the country.
Transmission and distribution (T&D) is a critical part of the minigrid story, but often overlooked. T&D World changed that with this article.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) also did a feature on our work in Nigeria, plus an accompanying video as part of a COP28 series on climate solutions.
Our partner RMI produced a short documentary featuring Husk Power and other minigrid developers working on community electrification in Nigeria.
