Sanlam pumps US$10m into Africa GreenCo in clean energy push
Regional energy trading platform Africa GreenCo (GreenCo) has received a major boost in its drive to support renewable independent power producers (IPPs) after South African-based Sanlam Alternative Investments acquired a 10% stake in the company for US$10m.
Sanlam becomes GreenCo’s first commercial private institutional investor in a deal that validates the growing role of African-backed capital in financing the continent’s energy transition.
The investment is expected to strengthen GreenCo’s efforts to expand renewable energy trading across Southern Africa by providing bankable power offtake solutions, supporting regional electricity markets, and unlocking private investment into clean energy infrastructure.
GreenCo’s business model combines four key capabilities under one platform — long-term renewable energy offtake agreements with IPPs, power sales agreements with mines and industrial customers, regional electricity trading across the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), and active portfolio optimisation.
GreenCo co-founder and chief financial officer, Pug Bennet, said Sanlam Alternative Investments has been one of the most consistent allocators of capital into African sustainable infrastructure for more than a decade.
“Its aim to be Africa’s premier sustainable and impact investor maps directly onto the role GreenCo plays in Southern Africa’s power markets,” Bennet said.
“This round positions GreenCo to further scale and continue delivering the bankable offtake that finances new generation and the reliable, increasingly low-carbon power that commercial and large industrial users across the region depend on.”
Executive Head of Infrastructure Finance at Sanlam Alternative Investments, Mark Moorhouse, said GreenCo occupies a critical segment of the energy value chain.
“For Sanlam Alternative Investments, this investment is a natural extension of more than a decade of infrastructure investment across the continent — backing the market architecture that allows Africa to finance its own energy transition on commercial terms, while supporting the reliable, increasingly low-carbon power that economic growth depends on,” Moorhouse said.
GreenCo is a pioneering renewable energy trader and buyer accelerating the energy transition across the Southern African Power Pool. Its innovative model is strengthened by the support of GuarantCo, part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group, which is internationally rated AA- by Fitch and A1 by Moody’s. This support reinforces GreenCo’s ability to provide bankable payment security solutions and unlock private investment into renewable power infrastructure across Africa in collaboration with state utilities in the region.
Licensed in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa, and now entering the Democratic Republic of Congo, GreenCo is an active participant in the SAPP market.
The company is backed by leading development finance institutions, including InfraCo Africa and the Danish Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU). GreenCo has also received international recognition from TIME, IJGlobal, Environmental Finance and Krutham, among others, for its innovation in energy trading, credit enhancement and scalable partnership-driven approach to accelerating Africa’s clean energy transition.
Sanlam Alternative Investments manages approximately US$12 billion in assets across emerging markets and has invested more than US$1 billion into 40 sustainable infrastructure projects across Africa over the past decade through its managed funds, including the Sustainable Infrastructure Fund.