Kenya Climate Ventures (KCV), a Kenyan based impact investor, has signed a convertible note investment agreement with Vuma Biofuels in order to expand their clean energy production.
This is KCV’s sixth line of investment utilizing patient capital to support promising businesses to generate positive financial and environmental returns. KCV will also take a Board seat as part of the investment.
Founded in 2017, Vuma Biofuels produces clean biomass briquettes called ‘VumaBriqs,’ from sugarcane waste. As one of the largest waste-to-energy biomass producers in Kenya, Vuma helps significantly reduce firewood dependency among large-scale industrial users like tea factories.
The agreement was signed on December 3, 2020 by Victor Ndiege, CEO of Kenya Climate Ventures and Ian Otula, CEO and Co-founder of Vuma Biofuels in the presence of Noel, the enterprise development partner at KCV offices in Nairobi.
“KCV is happy to walk this journey with Vuma as our dedication to accelerate clean energy adoption in the country and thus mitigate the impact of carbon emissions on climate change,” Ndiege said.
“We are very pleased to have KCV join our Seed round of funding. The proceeds of the investment will be used to significantly expand our production capacity, increase the number of job opportunities for women and youth in the community and increase resources to serve more customers,” Otula said during the signing.
“Through our development of a high-performance firewood alternative for industrial use we expect to save two million trees in the next three years. Keeping these trees in the ground will reduce atmospheric CO2 levels and help combat climate change,” Otula explains.
“KCV is an ideal partner for Vuma as they share our long-term vision of solving the wood fuel crisis, reducing deforestation, and creating an alternative biomass energy product for widespread adoption.”
Otula adds that the investment will also enable the enterprise to expand production to over 1000 tonnes of clean energy briquettes a month.
Kenya Climate Ventures is an independent investment management company based in Kenya seeking to accelerate the development of the clean-tech industry as a whole by providing much needed tailored and targeted financial and managerial assistance support to innovative early stage businesses. KCV seeks to invest in businesses that have relevant products or services, sustainable competitive advantage, good management teams and ethical business practices.
More information about KCV can be found on www.kcv.or.ke
