Africa's off-grid energy cold storage projects will benefit from $1.09 million in funds secured by InspiraFarms

Posted on : Thursday , 1st February 2024

Recent funding of $1.09 million (€1 million) has been obtained by InspiraFarms Cooling, a well-known cooling solutions supplier with headquarters in Kenya. The company's off-grid energy cold storage initiatives throughout Africa will benefit greatly from this contribution. Key participants in this round of investment include Factor, KawiSafi and the Foundation for Clean Energy and Energy Inclusion for Africa (CEI Africa).

With the intention of implementing its novel "Cooling-as-a-Service" model and developing its products in Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Ghana, the company obtained $5.4 million (€5 million) in finance from InfraCo Africa in 2023. This most recent investment comes soon after that funding. In 2020, the business also successfully completed its series B round.

Dedicated to combating food waste and uplifting rural communities, InspiraFarms Cooling was founded in 2012 and provides pre-cooling and cold chain technology services to agribusinesses. This prolongs the shelf life of food products and lowers prices.

Just 5% of fresh product in Africa makes it through the cold chain, meaning that 30–50% is lost. InspiraFarms offers temperature-controlled cold rooms, packhouses, slaughterhouses, freezers, precoolers, and long-term potato storage solutions in order to handle this problem.

With hundreds of its divisions operating in fifteen countries, the company services a wide range of clients, including food wholesalers, exporters, agribusinesses and third-party logistics.

InspiraFarms' CEO, Julian Mitchell, has highlighted the company's continued dedication to creating, developing, implementing, maintaining and funding energy-efficient cooling systems.

With its investment in InspiraFarms Cooling, CEI Africa has made its first contribution through the Foundation's crowdfunding platform. According to Omar Jabri, InfraCo Africa's Head of Business Development, the company's 2023 investment marks InfraCo Africa's first venture into "first-mile" cold storage.

With the goal of gaining a sizable portion of the African market, InspiraFarms stated in November 2023 that they were in discussion to buy Celtics Cooling's African division. The goal is to include the Celtic companies into Kenya, Ghana and Ethiopia's current infrastructure.

Some of the goods can run completely off the grid, according to the business and they are all compatible with renewable energy sources. Moreover, these items' technology enables up to 25% reductions in energy consumption.

Africa, off-grid, energy, cold storage, projects, $1.09, million, InspiraFarms, Cooling, KawiSafi, CEI, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ghana, InfraCo, Julian Mitchell