Energy Access Ventures

Energy Access Ventures Fund is an impact venture capital fund vintage 2015, based in Nairobi, Kenya, focused on investing in small and medium-sized enterprises active in electricity generation and distribution across Sub-Saharan Africa. The fund is a French investment vehicle sponsored by Schneider Electric and co-managed by E3 Capital, Schneider Electric, and Aster Capital. Its limited partners include the European Investment Bank, Proparco, and FMO, reflecting a development finance-oriented capital base. The fund concentrates on off-grid rural electrification, solar home systems, micro-grid solutions, data management, and novel financing techniques. It has deployed capital into 15 portfolio companies that collectively raised approximately $500 million in follow-on funding and have positively impacted more than 21 million individuals, 4 million households, and 1,600 businesses. Portfolio companies together generated 16 megawatts of energy and avoided 144 million tonnes of CO2. The fund leads rounds and deploys $1 million to $10 million checks across Seed, Series A, and Series B stages, investing across East, West, Middle, and Southern Africa. In February 2022, Energy Access Ventures rebranded to E3 Capital, expanding its scope to cover a broader range of technologies enabled by low-carbon energy and launching the follow-on E3 Low Carbon Economy Fund I. The fund's track record of mobilizing over $500 million into off-grid African energy businesses and delivering measurable social impact across millions of households positions it as a significant institution in the African clean energy investment ecosystem.