Today Persistent announced an investment and partnership with Solstroem – a carbon offset platform for off-grid solar companies – accelerating access to energy.
Solstroem enables the issuance of CO2 avoidance credits based on solar home systems and solar off-grid installations deployed by solar partners in developing and emerging economies. For Persistent this is not only an investment to grow this ecosystem builder, but also to create opportunities for our own partner companies and the wider off-grid solar sector.
Operating out of Denmark since 2018, founders Rachid Jabbar and Karim Jabbar created the Solstroem platform, with a CO2 emission avoidance registry at its core, that can issue and transact traceable carbon offsets based on off-grid solar installations. Solstroem does this by leveraging digital data created at the source. They are currently focusing on geographies with a high potential for deploying off-grid solar solutions through a lease-to-own or pay-as-you-go (PAYG) business models.
Solstroem is currently working with five partner companies in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. Those companies offer clean energy products and services to off-grid rural populations. Through the Solstroem platform, these solar companies gain access to the carbon market in an affordable way and generate additional revenue streams by selling their generated carbon offsets.
Solstroem is Persistent´s fourth investment and partnership with an ecosystem builder, but the first one in a program for carbon emissions avoidance. With this strategic investment, Persistent will create synergies and opportunities for its own partner companies in the climate space. Those partner companies will have the opportunity to join Solstroem’s carbon avoidance program. Selling their carbon avoidance certificates to customers in Solstroem’s marketplace, our companies will add to their gross profits on sales of their solar products and services, which benefits both the company and its customers.
Solstroem aims to positively impact the lives of over 2.5 million people in 2022. Persistent hopes to bring this vision a step closer with this first investment.
Solstroem founder Karim Jabbar said: “We are delighted to have Persistent join us on our climate venture journey. Persistent has led to the emergence of a vibrant ecosystem of off-grid companies. We are therefore very excited to have Persistent as an investor. We look forward to working together with their team on enabling easier access to carbon markets for the movers of this space. We see a lot of long-term potential in our collaboration. Our data-driven solution can, for instance, be used not only to generate additional revenue streams for distributed solar operators, but also to incentivize further innovation and developments in adjacent impactful areas, such as e-mobility, clean cooking, and sanitation.”
Tobias, Persistent Managing Partner said: “The consumer off-grid solar sector in Africa has been unable to access carbon finance, i.e. to monetize the climate impact their solutions are bringing. Solstroem has developed an approach and technology to change this, and we believe its products hold great potential to accelerate the growth and climate impact of the sector. Solstroem’s team and Persistent’s Venture Builders are excited to work together not only on the off-grid solar ecosystem, but also extend their products to other climate-relevant areas in Africa, such as e-mobility.”
Today, millions of people still live without a stable connection to grid electricity. It is still a long way to reach the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG7), which is to provide affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all. This leaves a huge demand for companies to not only support reaching the SDG 7 by providing access to energy services but also to choose possibilities for reducing the Co2 emissions. Off-grid solutions offer a fast and cost-effective way to reach the population no matter how rural the location might be.
For more information on Solstroem you can visit their website:
or contact joy@persistent.energy