16 November 2021: Kiri Energy has won the Kenyan stage of the EDF Pulse Africa Tour, part of the more global EDF Pulse Africa innovation competition. Twelve candidates will take part in the grand finale, held on December 2 in Paris. Embodying EDF's commitment to Africa, the EDF Pulse Africa competition supports its most promising innovative start-ups to meet Africa's current energy challenges and contribute to its economic development.

The EDF Pulse Africa Tour, launched in 2019, is conducted in partnership with African incubators and other EDF institutional partners to meet innovative start-ups on the ground. During the Kenyan finale, two candidates stood out among the nine finalist start-ups, demonstrating the diversity of the Kenyan entrepreneurial and start-up ecosystem.

The entrepreneurs presented and defended their projects in front of a jury of experts in the field of entrepreneurship, renewable energy, and energy transition, composed of Luc Koechlin, EDF VP for Southern and Eastern Africa; Christ Anderson Ahoua Boua, EDF Pulse Africa Project Manager; Dennis Keya, EDF Kenya Country Manager; Vladimir Dugin, Investor at Energy Acess Venture; Lillian Marenya, Head of Catalytic Support at GrowthAfrica; Mikayla Czajkowski, Chief Of Staff at Sunculture; Jerome Baconin, Head of the Economic Service at the French Embassy in Kenya; Jeff Vanden Berghe, Managing Director of BBOXX Kenya; as well as Emmastella Gakuo, COO and Co-founder of Savanna Circuit.

At the end of this stage, the jury finally awarded two prizes (a first prize and a "jury's coup de coeur") to two Kenyan entrepreneurs:

• The first prize was awarded to the start-up Kiri Energy and its integrated distribution offer of electric scooters;
• The jury's coup de coeur is the project Baridi, which creates and commercializes systems of conservation of meat by the cold fed by solar panels, in a “Pay-as-you-store” fashion.

During the final, on December 2, 2021, in Paris, four winners will be able to win up to €15,000 and join the EDF Pulse Africa Factory, an acceleration program bringing together players committed to accompanying and supporting the growth of African “nuggets” in the field of energy access. 

This fourth edition is redoubling its ambition after a growing success over the last five years, with 79 profiles selected in 2017 against 536 in 2019, spread over more than half of the 54 African countries. It will award three prizes as well as a "jury's coup de coeur" to African start-ups and SMEs proposing innovative solutions in the following areas:

• Off-grid power generation - any innovative solution for the generation or storage of electricity in off-grid areas;
• Electricity services and uses - any service that extends electrification and any innovative product that is electricity efficient or reusable by users of electricity services;
• Access to water - any innovative solution to improve access to water through electricity.

"EDF Pulse Africa is at the core of EDF dedication to the renewal of energy offering in Africa, pushing and supporting innovation to foster the emergence of locally produced solutions," says Luc Koechlin, EDF VP for Southern and Eastern Africa.

This initiative is a continuation of the EDF Pulse Awards. These awards were launched in 2012 and fostered 1,500 innovative projects in France, the UK, and Italy. They are part of EDF's strategy to identify potential partners, develop its ecosystem, and give visibility to young innovative African structures to gain agility and respond more appropriately to market needs.

As a reminder, EDF has been present for 50 years in more than 14 African countries, with more than 500,000 households electrified according to a "low-carbon" model that favors sustainable and accessible energy. This is evidenced, for example, by its acquiring of shares in two Kenyan companies, Aconet Energy Kenya, which specialized in solar energy destined to companies, and Bboxx Kenya specialized in the development of autonomous solar kits. EDF aims to expand its off-grid offering to the residential market and connect more than two million Kenyans to electricity by 2025.