Koolboks, Nigerian Cold Storage Solutions Startup Secures $2.5M for Expansion Across Africa

In order to develop its pay-as-you-go cold storage service for off-grid users in Kenya, Koolboks, a Nigerian cold storage firm, concluded a $2.5M Seed funding round.

This brings the company’s total investment to date to $3.5M.

Koolboks will use the funds to scale its operations across Nigeria, including developing its workforce to support its expanding B2C business and building a local assembly plant in the nation, in addition to its new affiliate office inaugurated in July in Kenya.

Poor electricity availability, expensive generator purchases and operations, and the comparatively high cost of chilling hinder many African households and businesses from having access to refrigeration when it is most required.

We think that by relying on energy from renewable sources like the sun, wind, and water that are all around us, people can support themselves and their families. The people, us, our investors, and the environment all benefit from this.

Koolboks, a company that was founded in France in 2018, uses the water and sun that are abundant in Africa to produce refrigeration that can last up to four days without electricity or sunshine.

By effectively utilizing natural resources, Koolboks has made off-grid solar refrigerator ownership inexpensive by including a pay-as-you-go system that allows people and small companies to spend as little as $10 per month to buy one.

The Koolboks appliance serves as a freezer, refrigerator, or source of lighting for homes and businesses. Additionally, it has two LED lights bulbs and USB ports for charging smartphones, which makes it a great tool for anyone living off the grid. Currently, 13 of the 16 nations where Koolboks are sold are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Koolboks wants to significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions and food waste.

Using R600a, an eco-friendly refrigerant, and replacing diesel with it, the company’s ice thermal refrigeration technology lowers CO2 emissions. The Efficiency for Access Coalition estimates that the $4.4 billion off-grid refrigeration sector is expanding at a pace of 7%. Koolboks is working to reduce the gap in fair access to clean, easily available energy because just 17% of people in SSA have access to refrigeration and 770 million people lack sufficient access to electricity.

The national power grid supply is irregular and inconsistent to both rural and urban households and companies, which affects millions of people everyday in Africa and other emerging countries. For some, it is frequently challenging to carry out and manage operations to make a living, with the majority turning to small-scale, hazardous diesel generators to supply electricity. With its cutting-edge cold storage solutions, Koolboks aims to empower enterprises in a variety of industries, including healthcare, food, hospitality, and pharmaceuticals, and help countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 7.

We are pleased with Koolboks’ creative solution, which goes beyond reducing food waste. The team is laser-focused on ensuring clean renewable energy in off-grid locations, which is essential for the survival of many small enterprises and industries as well as promoting economic gender equality. We are thrilled to see Koolboks’ expansion continue to make economic fairness a reality for millions more women across Africa. “Equitable access to clean and reliable energy is crucial to eliminating the gender economic gap across rural areas,” commented Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes, founder of Aruwa Capital Management.

Following the completion of a commercial pilot study in 2020 for its KoolHome solar freezer, which was to be installed in strategic locations in the Niger Delta, South-West, as well as the Federal Capital Territory and its environs, Koolboks received a $500,000 investment from All On, a Shell-funded impact investment fund, in June of this year.