Mirova’s Gigaton Fund, an emerging markets energy transition blended finance debt fund, has provided funding to climate technology company Koko to help expand its residential energy utility across Kenya and Rwanda.
Koko, which operates urban bioethanol cooking fuel utilities in the two countries, provides mass-market households with ultra-clean fuel, reducing reliance on fuels like deforestation-based charcoal.
John Kimotho, investment director at Mirova Kenya, said: “We are proud to support Koko’s transformative bioethanol cooking fuel technology platform, which aligns perfectly with the Mirova Gigaton Fund’s focus on innovative solutions to tackle climate challenges in emerging countries.
“This investment aims to not only reduce emissions from cooking but also combat deforestation by decreasing dependence on charcoal. Through this partnership, we are advancing scalable, sustainable solutions for a greener future.”
Greg Murray, CEO and co-founder at Koko, said: “We are pleased to have an asset manager of Mirova’s calibre on board to support our continued impact. Solving the charcoal curse is one of the grand challenges of development, and leveraging compliance carbon markets to enable a non-government consumer energy subsidy is an idea whose time has finally arrived.”
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