October 20, 2017 - ENGIE and Fenix announced that they have agreed on a transaction in which ENGIE will acquire 100% of Fenix International, a next generation energy company, offering Solar Home Systems (SHS) in Africa. Founded in 2009, Fenix employs over 350 people and has its main activities in Uganda where it is an SHS player with more than 140,000 customers. Fenix recently expanded into Zambia and plans further roll-outs in other countries across Africa. Fenix will be the first SHS company to join a major worldwide energy company, which puts the fight against climate change and energy access at the very center of its purpose.
Over 600 million people lack access to modern energy in Africa. Rapid improvement of photovoltaic, battery storage technologies and mobile payment platforms make it possible for companies to offer affordable, reliable and expandable solar home systems. Fenix‘s flagship product, ReadyPay Power, provides lighting, phone charging and power for TVs and radios. The technology is offered on a lease-to-own basis so that off-grid cus- tomers can finance their power system through micro instalments over mobile money. Fenix uses the financing of the solar home system to build a credit score for each customer which can then be used to power and finance other products and services from Fenix.
This investment will contribute to ENGIE’s goal of providing 20 million people around the world with access to decarbonized, decentralized energy by 2020, using the latest digital technologies. Fenix’s strength within the home solar market in Africa will play a strategic part in the realisation of this goal, given the number of households that off-grid solar is expected to reach over the coming years. The World Bank has estimated that up to 99 million households, more than a third of those that are off- grid, will rely on home solar by 2020, with the market growing fastest in Africa.