KOKO Raises Financing from Mirova to Scale its Climate Technology Across Kenya & Rwanda

KOKO, a Nairobi-based climate technology startup has raised debt financing from Mirova to scale its residential energy utility across Kenya and Rwanda.

KOKO will use the carbon finance debt facility from Mirova Gigaton Fund to scale up a new type of residential energy utility across Kenya and Rwanda, in line with the fund’s objective to accelerate access to renewable energy in emerging markets. Mirova, is an affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers dedicated to sustainable investing.

According to Greg Murray, CEO & Co-Founder at KOKO: “We are pleased to have an asset manager of Mirova’s calibre on board to support our continued impact. Solving the charcoal curse is one of the grand challenges of development, and leveraging compliance carbon markets to enable a non-government consumer energy subsidy is an idea whose time has finally arrived. We look forward to working together with the Mirova team for the long term.”

In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 850 million people depend on firewood and charcoal for cooking. By 2030, it is projected that 2.2 billion people will still rely on inefficient and polluting energy sources for cooking, primarily in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. These cooking methods release harmful pollutants, worsening the climate crisis and causing 3.7 million premature deaths each year due to smoke inhalation and indoor air pollution, disproportionately affecting women, children, and those in sub-Saharan Africa. A continent-wide energy transition toward clean and modern fuels is crucial to solving this problem.

KOKO aims to lead this transition, replacing demand for charcoal by supplying over 1.3 million homes in Kenya and Rwanda with sustainable bioethanol cooking fuel distributed through a dense network of high-tech KOKO Fuel ATMs located in thousands of corner stores. The resultant carbon revenues are shared with households as a non-government energy subsidy, enabling even the poorest households to switch.

The Mirova Gigaton Fund’s investment for KOKO aligns with its objectives to positively impact people’s lives and addresses a range of the Sustainable Development Goals, specifically by scaling clean energy access, protecting forests and reducing emissions, improving family health, and building sustainable infrastructure.

John Kimotho, Investment Director at Mirova Kenya Ltd: “We are proud to support KOKO’s transformative bioethanol cooking fuel technology platform, which aligns perfectly with the Mirova Gigaton Fund’s focus on innovative solutions to tackle climate challenges in emerging countries. This investment aims to not only reduce emissions from cooking but also combat deforestation by decreasing dependence on charcoal. Through this partnership, we are advancing scalable, sustainable solutions for a greener future.”

KOKO operates urban bioethanol cooking fuel utilities in Kenya and Rwanda supplying mass-market households with ultra-clean fuel and replacing demand for dirty fuels such as deforestation-based charcoal. Compliance carbon markets are used to provide a non-government energy subsidy, enabling even the poorest households to transition.

KOKO was founded in 2014, is backed by a wide range of environmental investors including Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, and was recognized by FT/IFC in 2021 as the world’s leading emerging markets climate technology solution.