2021-10-14
The small island nation of Mauritius is still highly dependent on imported fossil fuels to power the economy. Also, the lion’s share of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to the energy sector. In an attempt to reset the country’s economy, embrace clean energy as an engine for jobs and make the island climate-proof for future generations, the government of Mauritius has embarked upon an ambitious energy transition agenda. Reaping the benefits of this opportunity is Reneworld, a leading provider of renewable energy solutions and an investee of Inside Equity Fund since 2019. In order to provide these solutions, like building grid-connected solar installations for residences, Reneworld needs approval and a permit from the Mauritian authorities. Although this process is generally effective it took a severe hit during the COVID-19 crisis and subsequent lockdown, therefore permit issuance were suddenly frozen from Q2 2020 for the rest of the year. This left Reneworld in a stressful situation for future business. The company’s founder and CEO, Irfanally Fatadin, quickly started looking for ways to not only mitigate the impact of the crisis, but also to turn it into an opportunity for resilience. With support from Inside Equity Fund, the Reneworld team set out to launch new innovations (eg. solar-powered appliance goods such as fridges), restructure sales and processes, develop a rental solution to solar home systems and penetrate the larger-scale segment of the solar energy market. Successfully initiating these actions in a responsive and efficient way, Reneworld managed to close 2020 better than expected despite COVID-19. More importantly, the company used the lockdown to fast-track the development of initiatives that would have taken much longer to execute in a normal context. This effort would not have been possible without the partnership with Inside. DGGF invested in Inside Equity Fund in 2017.
