All On, through its venture-building platform the All On Hub, in partnership with the Nigeria Climate Innovation Centre (NCIC) has unveiled the winners of the 2022 edition of the annual incubation programme for early-stage renewable energy entrepreneurs.
They are: Retile, Let It Cold, Energy Assured, Nutrideen Agriculture Concepts, Danwawo Group, Swift Tranzact, Solaris Greentech Hub and Powerbox Energy Systems.
The incubation programme, which started training new cohorts in May 2022, aims to contribute to the reduction of Nigeria’s energy-access gap by building a pipeline of early-stage renewable energy enterprises with the potential to scale.
This year, the programme received 290 applications from which 18 ventures were shortlisted and completed the six-month incubation programme conducted by the NCIC.
On Thursday, October 27, 2022, at a Demo Day event hosted at the All On Hub multi-purpose hall in Ikoyi, Lagos, the start-ups pitched their business plans to a seasoned, varied panel of judges for a chance to win $10,000 grant award funding. The Demo Day event marks the completion of the Embryo Incubation programme (EIP).
In her address, All On CEO, Caroline Eboumbou, congratulated the participants and commended them for their dedication to supporting the clean energy transition with their bold ideas. She noted that “the shared vision of All On and NCIC has been to groom early-stage clean energy entrepreneurs, providing them with the key ingredients to enable their dreams of impacting unserved communities a reality”. She further charged the entrepreneurs not to relent and reaffirmed All On’s commitment to their continued development in the future.
The CEO of NCIC, Mr. Bankole Oloruntoba, reiterated the organisation’s commitment to the growth of renewable energy start-ups in Nigeria. He reflected on the journey of the EIP noting that over 50 ideation-stage businesses have gone through the programme.
He thanked All On for its partnership which over the last three years has provided funding and capacity-building support to the renewable energy start-ups. Bankole charged the entrepreneurs to remain focused and maximise the resources available to them through the NCIC network to accelerate the growth of their businesses, drawing inspiration from notable alumni from the previous cohorts.
Of the eight winning pitches, four were delivered by women founders/CEOs – a notable sign of the positive strides being made by women entrepreneurs in the sector. The women-led ventures are: Let It Cold, Energy Assured, Danwawo and Solaris.
One of the female recipients of the $10,000 grant, Zainab Abdulwaheed, co-founder of Let It Cold, thanked All On and NCIC for the opportunity.
“My business has benefited from my participation in the incubation programme over the last six months, and we have improved our understanding of how a business operates,” she added.
According to judge Damilola Asaleye, Vice President, Renewable Energy Association of Nigeria (REAN), “the innovative ideas during this year’s incubation programme were outstanding, original, and demonstrated sustainability. The quality of the pitches was top-notch. They all demonstrated that Africa and Nigeria can solve energy poverty with locally developed solutions. NCIC and All On are truly unlocking potential.”
The All On Hub manager, Sele Inegbedion, affirmed the success of the EIP over the last three years.
“The All On Hub has deployed $240,000 to this programme series in grant awards, and it has proven to be a worthwhile commitment. The progress made by alumni entrepreneurs is a testament to the value of this programme, and the quality of pitch presentations at today’s event gives strong promise for the future of energy access in Nigeria. We look forward to continued partnership with NCIC, as we deepen our support to these bright ventures,” he added.
Some of the clean energy ideas presented at this year’s pitching event include solar-powered cooling systems, cold storage solutions, solar home systems (SHS), solar generators, energy efficiency technologies and biogas production.
