21 September 2021: U.S. Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has invested $10 million in Nithio's Financial Intermediary, Nithio FI, B.V., an AI-enabled clean energy financing platform. Strongly aligned with DFC's climate-focused investments agenda, this investment enables Nithio to scale its data-driven financing to impact more than 3.5 million people by 2025 and drive climate change adaptation efforts in Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria. The investment, joined alongside FSD Africa Investments and EDFI-ElectriFI, finalized Nithio FI's first round of $23 million. Nithio FI is a blended finance, permanent capital vehicle that is purpose-built to mobilize capital at scale.
Nithio continues to scale its lending operations in key growth markets. To date, Nithio has invested in four high-impact off-grid solar and microfinance institutions in Kenya and Nigeria, including VEP, Rafode, Winock, and A4&T Power Solutions. Nithio has built a strong pipeline and looks forward to continuing to build strong partnerships with companies focused on providing solar energy for powering homes, businesses, and agricultural activities. These products not only bring clean energy access, they increase resilience to climate change.
"Nithio has created an innovative, data-driven solution that fills a large gap in the market to sustainably scale capital flows to the clean energy sector. By standardizing credit risk, Nithio's investments will have an outsized impact towards achieving universal energy access and combating the effects of climate change," said Bobby Pittman, Nithio Co-Founder and Founding Partner at Kupanda Capital.
As Nithio moves to its next phase of growth, the team thanks Héla Cheikhrouhou for her service as Chief Executive Officer and wishes her well in her return to the public sector as Regional Vice President for Middle East, Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan at the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
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About Nithio: Nithio is an energy financing platform powered by a proprietary AI-enabled risk analytics engine. Nithio developed its innovative approach to standardize credit risk assessments in order to unlock and scale energy access in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nithio advances energy financing at scale through its Financial Intermediary, Nithio FI B.V., which offers receivables-backed financing to off-grid energy providers in Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya. Driven by the Risk Analytics Engine, Nithio FI's innovative approach expands access to off-grid clean energy for households, micro businesses, and smallholder farmers. For more information, visit: www.nithio.com.
