"Demonstrating impact to unlock capital", Bim Adisa, CEO of Beacon Power Services

African companies need to demonstrate that they are not only solving African problems but also building scalable businesses around them. Investors have heard enough about Africa’s potential; they want evidence.

At BPS, when we talk to investors, we don’t spend too much time telling them how large the African energy market is. Everyone knows that. We focus on what we have actually achieved: the utilities we work with, the problems we are solving and the measurable impact of our solutions. An independent study found that our solutions helped one utility significantly reduce outages, preventing approximately 78,000 MWh of electricity from going undelivered. Ultimately, when you solve a real problem, demonstrate impact and build a sustainable business around it, capital will follow.

The simple answer is risk, and some of that risk is real. Many African utilities are financially constrained, some are government-owned or heavily regulated, and payment and receivables risk can be significant. In some markets, utilities also carry substantial obligations across the electricity value chain.

For investors, the question is how those risks can be managed. This is where institutions like Proparco can play an important role. Beyond providing capital, they understand how these markets work and can help structure investments to mitigate risk, for example by supporting mechanisms that give investors greater visibility and security over cash flows, including access to cash waterfalls where appropriate.

Proparco’s investment was a significant turning point for BPS. When they invested in 2024, we were operating in two countries. Today, we are in eight countries across Africa, so there is a very clear difference in the scale of the business.

But the impact goes beyond capital. When an institution like Proparco backs an African company, it signals to other investors, utilities and partners that the business has been examined closely and meets a high standard. That validation opens doors that money alone sometimes cannot. It also brought greater discipline. Their governance, reporting and accountability requirements have made us a more rigorous company and created a stronger foundation for our next phase of growth.