Spark+ Africa Fund was launched to address the lack of public and private financing in Africa’s innovative clean cooking sector. Spark+ is a 7-year, $54 million blended capital facility that brings together public and private investors under one structure. In March 2022, Spark+ was launched by EQ and its partner Stichting Modern Cooking, having been developed with the support of the Clean Cooking Alliance, an initiative of the United Nations Foundation. The fund has a targeted yet flexible mandate to invest across the value chains of various technologies including ethanol, biogas, biomass, LPG, and electric appliances.
EQ was proud to launch Spark+ as its second fund which allowed it to expand beyond its previous focus on financial inclusion with a thematic fund and the world’s first specialized in this critical yet underinvested aspect of energy access in Africa and throughout the developing world. Spark+ aims to demonstrate that clean and modern energy for cooking is not just an important social and environmental consideration, but that it also represents a large and compelling commercial proposition, making it a truly high-impact, untapped investment opportunity in Africa and across frontier markets globally.
