Michelmores has advised Bamboo Finance, a global private equity group, on its US$3m Series B investment in BBOXX Limited. Bamboo’s investment was made alongside DOEN Foundation, a Dutch green social impact fund and they join an existing investor base alongside Khosla Impact, Ceniarth and Synergy. The Michelmores corporate team comprised Partner Joe Whitfield, Associate Sundip Biswas, and Solicitor Harry Trick. Emily Timmins and Tom Stenner-Evans provided IP and employment support respectively.
Ranked as one of the UK’s leading start-ups, BBOXX designs, manufactures and distributes solar powered battery packs to markets across Africa and the developing world. Through a vast network of shops and a consumer financing model for their solar systems, BBOXX provides access to electricity to the mass market and hundreds of jobs for local employees. To date, BBOXX has reached over 50,000 customers with rooftop Solar Home Systems and their vision is to provide 20 million people with electricity by 2020.
Bamboo’s investment into BBOXX brings its total portfolio of investee companies to nearly 50, operating in over 30 emerging market countries. Bamboo is a commercial private equity firm specialising in investing in business models that benefit low-income communities in emerging markets, with offices in Luxembourg, Geneva, Bogota, Nairobi and Singapore.
Christian Schattenmann, Bamboo’s Energy Fund Manager, commented:
“Distributed energy is the best and most cost effective solution for off-grid markets and consumer financing solves a critical missing link in the distributed energy supply chain in off-grid markets. BBOXX removes a critical barrier to reaching low-income communities”.
Joe Whitfield, Head of Michelmores’ Emerging Markets team, commented:
“We were delighted to have the opportunity to assist Bamboo in this important investment. Poor access to power is one of the main impediments to future growth in the emerging markets, so the success of innovative start-ups like BBOXX is crucial to tackling this problem.”
