On Monday, February 22, E+Co Investment Officers from 3 continents and 7 countries came together with E+Co Executives and Staff to share regional investment tactics, discuss local markets and develop a unified investment scale up strategy.
E+Co Investment Officers who are responsible for identifying, training and financing local clean energy entrepreneurs are the key ingredient in E+Co’s recipe to support clean energy development in some of the world’s toughest markets. They have a wide range of expertise covering areas such as rural energy electrification, energy finance, biomass gasification and solar power value chains. In addition to their technical abilities, the majority of E+Co Investment Officers hail from the regions in which they work, putting them in the best possible position to know which clean energy products and services are appropriate, available and affordable for their regions.
As preparation for the week of knowledge sharing, each Investment Officer developed a case study to highlight both the challenges and successes of a particular investment from their portfolio. The analysis of these case studies have provided an opportunity for Investment Officers to learn from one another, while giving E+Co staff the chance to better understand local market environments as well as a deeper understanding of how investment opportunities are discovered, nurtured and matured.
Alex Remy from the E+Co Costa Rica office shared his experiences with SEESA, a solar PV distributor and installer in El Salvador. Sweta Pockarel of E+Co’s Thailand office charted the rapid growth of E+Co biomass gasifier investee SME RE in Cambodia. In a country where only 16% of the population has grid electricity, SME RE has built a business in distributing, installing and service industrial biomass gasification operations, growing the business from 1 installed gasifier in 2005 to approximately 23 installed gasifiers in 2009, while helping manufacturers to offset use of diesel fuel by 65%. Despite SME’s stellar growth, increased competition looms on the horizon, and Sweta related some of the challenges the enterprise will face and how E+Co is helping them in their future planning.
E+Co’s pro-bono legal advisor, Weil, Gothal & Manges, joined for an afternoon of legal process reviews, while E+Co Board Chairperson Guy Kern Martin, who also sits on E+Co ‘s Investment Committee, shared the unique perspective of reviewing the investment recommendations submitted by the Investment Officers.
From evaluating investment pipelines to discussing the many “faces” of the Enterprise Development Services that E+Co provides, the week has energized E+Co investment staff on the opportunity to build on their experience and expertise in clean energy, and take E+Co to the next level of clean energy enterprise.