Deadline: 27 May 2020
The GET.invest Finance Catalyst links renewable energy projects and companies with finance opportunities and vice versa, targeting small- and medium-scale renewable energy (RE) opportunities, currently in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean.
It provides advisory support on investment strategy, business case structuring, as well as accessing finance through a team of dedicated experts with extensive experience in renewable energy project development and finance.
Many of these projects and companies are challenging for financiers due to the relatively small ticket size, and due to their limited experience with these technologies and new business models. Project and business developers may lack the experience, networks or time to identify appropriate sources of finance, resulting in high transaction costs and few projects reaching financial close.
The team assists private sector driven RE projects and companies. They can support independent power producers (IPPs), Commercial and Industrial RE, mini-grids, solar home system businesses, (decentralised) energy services companies (ESCOs and DESCOs), and clean cooking projects.
Projects and businesses with strong underlying fundamentals can be supported to access debt, equity or grants, aiming to reach financial close. The support is available to the whole range of technologies within the RE sector. The team has dealt with wind, solar, hybrid, hydro, biomass and biogas projects in a variety of business models.
The Finance Catalyst services are fully complementary to other support and financing instruments in so far as they assist market participants in accessing them, and help these instruments towards stronger traction and results.
Services
The Finance Catalyst team works with project developers and companies. They connect qualified applicants to development finance institutions (DFIs), project preparation support instruments, impact investors and commercial lenders, providing in-kind advisory (but no direct financial support).
The Finance Catalyst delivers through a lean, non-bureaucratic setup, and an à la carte portfolio of services:
- Investment strategy geared at applicants at a relatively early stage, but with concrete financing prospects, and providing guidance on the necessary steps of project and business development in order to ensure completeness and quality.
- Structuring support advising on essential aspects of business case and financing models and supporting developers towards structuring their propositions in a way that corresponds to the needs and expectations of financiers.
- Access to finance support to identify appropriate financing options and to align documentation with the specific requirements of financing and support instruments.
- Transaction support to provide assistance in the contractual negotiations during project preparation and business development, including (for example) aspects of the financing transaction, term sheets, contractual agreements with specialised advisory, or the fulfilment of conditions precedent.
Eligibility Criteria
The GET.invest Finance Catalyst support is available to all applicants that meet the following minimum criteria:
- Only projects and businesses with a cumulative generation capacity between 0.5-50 MW or aggregated investments in the range of €250,000 to €70 million are eligible.
- Applicants must be situated in sub-Saharan Africa or in the Caribbean.
- Supported models may comprise electricity generation, electricity distribution (in the case of mini-grids and standalone systems), mechanical energy and industrial / process heat or cooling, as well as cleaning cooking. Transmission projects or biofuels are not eligible.
- Eligible applicants may be private sector developers (local and international), NGOs, universities or research institutions. Preference is given to projects with a significant private sector representation.
- The major part of the scope must be a renewable energy system investment. Hybrid systems with a reasonable share of renewable generation capacity are also eligible.
- Proposals must be conceptualised as revenue generating and meet a minimum economic viability and sustainability threshold.
For more information, visit https://www.get-invest.eu/finance-catalyst/access/