The Energy Talk

🏡💡Expand your mini-grid company to more communities As a mini-grid company looking to expand to different communities, you must be prepared to master the art of optimising your business models as doing so is what will safeguard your presence in the unique energy ecosystems of Sub-Saharan Africa. It is particularly essential in eliciting the support of the local communities that will constitute your new customer bases as several government agencies now legally require local and foreign mini-grid developers to accommodate the local communities they interface with. 🎙️In the latest episode of our podcast, we discussed with CEO and Co-founder Nico Peterschmidt about the creative business models his multinational mini-grid consultancy company INENSUS GmbH has developed to garner support from their diverse customer bases in over 30 countries across #Africa and #Asia as well as expand into more communities. One of those models, community electrification, has reaped significant benefits for VoltTerra GmbH a joint venture between Inensus and Ugandan agriculture company Gourmet Gardens as it has enabled both local farmers and Volt-Terra’s employees to maximise productivity and reduce average costs. 🎧To find out more of the creative business models you can use to expand your mini-grid company to more communities, tune in to the latest episode of our podcast: https://apple.co/3y30Rdz

What does failure look like for Arnergy? This is one question (a difficult one, might we add) that has become a mainstay in our episodes. It's easy to herald great success, but we've seen that it's equally important to recognize the possibility for failure and factor these into plans, projections, and promises. 💡 In chasing our clean energy targets, we cannot afford to fail, and that's why we consistently interview pioneers like James Fabola Jr and Femi Adeyemo working to deliver quantifiable impact on a national and continental scale. 🎧 Listen to James' answer by heading on to: https://lnkd.in/dHzsrb9Y

👣 When should you take a leap of faith? For investor turned CFO, James Fabola Jr., the answer is simple: when there is indubitable value. 👉 Tune in to the first episode of our new season to hear first-hand how James made his decision to join leading clean tech company Arnergy as its CFO after working as an investor for most of his career, and how he embraced an interesting value proposition, that, so far, is translating into a profitable leap of faith: https://lnkd.in/dHzsrb9Y

📑 Should #cleanenergy operators talk more publicly about their numbers? The combination of relative nascency, increasing market uncertainty, and general "hush culture" within sub-Saharan Africa's clean energy ecosystem often makes companies operating within this space a little hesitant when it comes to revealing funding or exit information. However, Arnergy has chosen to set a different tone by making a lot of its funding numbers public, and most recently published its $3 million bridge round in February, financed by All On. James Fabola Jr, in our latest episode, also spoke about the company's plans for Series B and notes why it remains important for the company to engage the public on these details. 🎧 Listen to the full episode to learn more about his insights here: https://lnkd.in/dHzsrb9Y

This "full circle moment" is one of my favourite clips from the season 5 launch of The Energy Talk podcast with James Fabola Jr, CFO of Arnergy. The first time we had Arnergy on the podcast was in July 2021, 2 years after their $9M Series A round - where James was on the Norfund investment team that participated in the round. In that 15-minute conversation with Femi Adeyemo (CEO), we discussed the challenges of scaling the business. 3 years later, Arnergy is still growing and gearing up to raise a Series B. Combining story with impact is a skill we are mastering on the podcast and while I failed to get James to share an exclusive on how much Arnergy is looking to raise - we speak about the resilience, innovation, and operational efficiency that has kept the company alive and growing. Listen to the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/fsYtzSE

🌍💡 What was Arnergy's missing middle? 🎙 In the first episode of our new season, James Fabola Jr highlighted a pivotal moment in Arnergy's inception—when energy access was a pressing issue yet lacked the requisite structure for scale. Arnergy, however, through the experiences of its founder, Femi Adeyemo, and market constraints, identified a crucial gap—one that was hinged on energy reliability amidst prohibitive fuel costs and an unstable centralized grid. 10 years later, and it seems that Arnergy's patience and strategic bets are beginning to pay off, with their early differentiation strategy now yielding significant results. 🎧 Learn more about how the company and its founders chased and secured differentiation by listening to the episode here: https://lnkd.in/dHzsrb9Y

💰Despite the many difficulties accessing capital in the current operating environment, Arnergy, a Nigerian clean-tech company, is gearing up for a big Series B funding round. With the achievement of such a feat, it should come as no surprise that Arnergy is one of the only companies in the Nigerian renewable energy sector that has remained in operation for 10 years and counting. 🎧If you are curious about how you can also achieve such a feat, and other equally remarkable feats, then give a listen to Season 5 Episode 1 of our podcast, featuring James Fabola Jr., the Chief Financial Officer of Arnergy, using this link: https://lnkd.in/dHzsrb9Y

🚨Just last month, we wrapped up Season 4 of our podcast which featured a number of brilliant guests who enlightened our listeners, including us, with their evocative perspectives. Incase you missed it, you can still catch up here: https://lnkd.in/dy5q6hsQ, and if you didn’t, it’ll be valuable to re-listen. 🎙️For the past month, we have been making various preparations for the launch of Season 5 which will be coming to you by the end of July. We have a lot of exciting narratives planned and we promise a uniquely diverse set of guests right from our very first episode which will feature one of the leading renewable energy operators in Nigeria. 📌So, stay tuned to our page and anticipate the new season!

When I first started The Energy Talk I read that 90% of podcasts don't make it past 3 episodes. 97 episodes later and today we celebrate the 5th anniversary of the podcast! This milestone has put me in a retrospective mood, I first started the podcast after graduating into a downturn in the oil and gas sector. A few unsuccessful job applications later, and attending a recruitment event where I saw CVs stacked in long piles made me think of other ways to network. The idea for the podcast came from my public speaking and spoken word background at university. I took what I was already good at and adapted it to a platform that allowed me to learn about the energy sector outside of oil & gas and network. Then came the next challenge, I was a broke new grad who needed to buy equipment. Enter my first sponsor (and mom) Tolu Olajide, who took the chance on the idea and very light pitch (it's gotten better I promise), and off we went. Now we're preparing for the launch of season 5 where we will be focusing exclusively on energy infrastructure projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. With the help of my producer Chigozie Ubah who shares my borderline obsession with this niche and new production partners Africa Business Radio, we will be producing 12 episodes over the next 6 months! We are also looking for new partners on the podcast if you would like to get your brand/message in front of over 5,000 listeners monthly who are deeply connected to the #DRE sector in SSA, then we would love to speak to you about what that would look like on the podcast. Be sure to follow me and The Energy Talk for our most ambitious season yet!

🔚 And that’s a wrap! After 10 months, 24 guests, and 14 episodes, our fourth season on the podcast has come to an end. We began with a 8-episode series sponsored by SELCO Foundation and co-produced with Marilyn Smith of The ENERGY ACTION Project and Global SDG7 Hubs, where we explored how distributed energy impacted the health and agri-practices of millions of small-holder farmers in rural India and underserved communities. It was absolutely riveting hearing from the brilliant lineup of: Harish Hande, Gauri Singh, Ganesh Neelam, Huda Jaffer, Supriya Gowda K.R, Makena Ireri, Rachita Misra, Heather Adair-Rohani, Shweta Narayan, Shri Ram Kumar S, Nirmita Chandrashekar, Bijal Brahmbhatt, Anshul Ojha, Ralph Roothaert, Henok Assefa, and Paul T. Yillia (Dr. techn.). 🔍 This season, we also decided to go all-in on focusing squarely on the operators, financiers, and policy makers making a difference in sub-Saharan Africa’s energy transition. As a first step in this direction, we featured conversations from financiers like Persistent, CrossBoundary Group, Odyssey Energy Solutions, and Diamond Development Initiatives mobilizing and injecting finance into ventures and projects. We also heard from operators like Grid Crux and Mobile Power who are innovating in unique ways, and featured SolarAid Aid; evaluating the charity’s unique model to tackling energy poverty. A huge shoutout to: David Arinze, Lynne Wesonga, Luke Burras, Tobias Ruckstuhl, CMA, Wairimu Karanja, Justin Tinsey, Mojola Ola, and John Keane. As conclude this season, we'll leverage lessons learned to elevate our upcoming fifth season, which will launch in early July, so stay tuned ❗ 🎧 And if you haven't checked us out yet, you can here (or anywhere you get your podcasts):https://lnkd.in/dy5q6hsQ