Why We Invested in PowerLabs | Reimagining energy transmission in Africa

We are thrilled to announce our investment in PowerLabs, a young Nigerian company reimagining energy transmission in emerging markets.

With an unreliable national grid and dependence on expensive, polluting diesel generators, Nigeria is a real-world laboratory for rethinking the broken energy equation for frontier markets. For both households and businesses, energy scarcity is more than a technical issue — it is a big barrier to growth, productivity, and quality of life. Addressing this challenge is not just about deploying solar panels — it is about understanding the real use cases, constraints, and opportunities unique to Africa’s rural and peri-urban environments.

Our investment in PowerLabs is about:

• Anticipating how the energy transition will actually unfold in Africa.

• Backing a model that doubles as an infrastructure layer for climate resilience.

The false start of solar in Africa

Africa’s solar boom has largely played out in two waves so far — both of which, while meaningful, fall short of solving the continent’s deeper energy needs and providing access to the over 600 million Africans still without power.

• The first wave brought solar lighting kits to rural households, often with financing. These products filled a gap but could not generate income, making repayment difficult and limiting their long-term impact.

• The second wave aimed to displace diesel generators with rooftop solar for small- and medium-sized enterprises and households. But unlike in developed markets, most African consumers can’t afford the high upfront costs — and in crowded urban areas, they often lack the roof space to install systems at all. The vision of universal self-generation simply doesn’t align with local realities.

Image courtesy of PowerLabs

A smart, grounded approach

PowerLabs is building from a more realistic starting point. Instead of beginning with individual homes or rural areas, they target mission-critical businesses — factories, retail chains, and other anchor clients with space, budget, and urgent energy needs.

These businesses often oversize their systems to meet peak demand, meaning much of their solar capacity goes unused during off-peak hours. PowerLabs installs smart metering infrastructure to track, in real time, generation and consumption down to the device level.

PowerLabs discovered that energy can be distributed within neighborhoods in a remarkably clever way — by applying first-principles thinking. It is the kind of insight that only founders deeply rooted in the region, and unshaped by legacy electricity models from the EU or US, could reach. A few decades ago, the telecommunications industry underwent a similar shift, realizing that connecting millions in developing markets required entirely new connectivity technologies and business models — often the opposite of what worked in developed countries.

The host business can:

• Use the excess for social responsibility,

• sell it at a lower rate and earn extra income, or

• invite off-grid operators to scale up generation and share revenue.

To put all of this into perspective: If Nigeria were to replace all of its diesel generators with solar, the country would gain 8x the current capacity of the national grid. Power Labs sees that potential and is acting on it.

A climate infrastructure in disguise

The second reason we invested in PowerLabs is the climate resilience dimension.

Every new solar node becomes a pillar of local infrastructure. Solar-powered pumps make drought-proof farming possible. Community batteries ensure lighting, refrigeration, and mobility keep running uninterrupted during climate shocks like floods or heatwaves. And for urban informal markets, mobile energy access means businesses can operate nomadically when their base location is affected.

Getting energy right in Africa is not just about decarbonization. It is about enabling life, work, and adaptation in both rural and urban settings. This is not just a sustainability play — it is a resilience playbook.

Image courtesy of PowerLabs

Why PowerLabs

When we met Tobe and the PowerLabs team, it was clear they were not just building tech — they were designing a system. Their combined experience across energy, infrastructure, and product make a difference. They move fast, draw on deep knowledge, and are unafraid to rethink how energy distribution should work in the African context.

“Distributed energy resources are often seen as fragmented and chaotic, a clutter of devices that do not speak the same language. At PowerLabs, we believe decentralization does not have to mean disorder. We are building the layer that transforms these diverse systems into a coordinated, intelligent ecosystem, where energy devices, applications, and services work in harmony to deliver smarter, more personalized power experiences.” Tobe Arize, CEO & Co-Founder, PowerLabs

Nigeria may be the starting point, but the implications for this reimagination stretch across the continent. We see PowerLabs as a foundational company — building a model that others will learn from, build on, and expand. We are proud to be part of this journey.