Nigerian climate tech venture Rana Energy has officially closed a US $3 million pre-seed funding round aimed at scaling its AI-driven solar-plus-storage “Clean Energy-as-a-Service” platform across Africa.
The financing comprises approximately US $500,000 in equity from top-tier investors, including Techstars, EchoVC Eco and prominent angel backers. The larger chunk, US $2.5 million, comes from a local-currency green debt facility arranged by Optimum Global and backed by FSDH Asset Management.
Founded in 2023 by engineers Abraham Mohammed (CEO) and Mubarak Popoola (CTO), Rana Energy is building what it calls a “Virtual Solar Network” (VSN) a digital, AI-powered platform that aggregates solar and battery assets, manages them remotely, and offers subscription-based access to clean energy with no upfront cost to businesses or institutions.
To date, the startup reports deploying around 1.3 MW of solar and storage capacity across Nigeria within 18 months. According to the company, uptime is 99.9 percent, diesel dependence among clients has fallen by over 80 percent, and energy cost savings of up to 30 percent have been achieved.
With the new funding, Rana Energy plans to ramp its installed capacity to 10 MW over the next 12 months and to enter new markets, including Ghana and Zambia.
The funds will be deployed as follows:
- The equity portion (≈US $500K) will deepen product development, expand the team (engineering, operations, customer success) and enhance AI/analytics capabilities.
- Green debt facility (~US $2.5M) will fund hardware deployment (solar panels, battery storage), site installations, and customer subscriptions at scale.
Why This Is Significant
- Africa’s commercial and industrial users spend billions on diesel generators due to unreliable grids; Rana’s model addresses a large and underserved market.
- The hybrid funding structure (equity + green debt) is tailored to asset-heavy cleantech deployment, showing investor confidence in distributed energy infrastructure in emerging markets.
- The application of AI for demand forecasting, digital asset aggregation and remote operations positions Rana as more than just a hardware play it’s a software-enabled energy platform.
With its pre-seed round now secured, Rana Energy is well-positioned to test its model at scale and build momentum ahead of a potential larger follow-on round. If it can execute on its 10 MW target and prove replication in new markets, it may become a compelling case study in how African cleantech can attract institutional-grade investment and replace diesel-based power generation with smarter, cleaner energy infrastructure.
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