Investment Strategy
How Spark+ selects, structures and manages investments across the modern-cooking value chain in Africa.
Spark+ Africa Fund finances businesses and projects expanding access to modern cooking in Africa. Eligible counterparties include manufacturers, fuel and infrastructure operators, distributors, financial institutions and project developers across the modern-cooking value chain.
Financing may support working capital, receivables, inventory, productive assets, infrastructure and project deployment. Instruments and structures are selected according to the counterparty, market, underlying cash flows and principal risks.
Companies designing, manufacturing or assembling modern-cooking appliances and related products.
Portfolio example
BURN →Businesses producing, storing, bottling or distributing modern cooking fuels and the infrastructure supporting them.
Portfolio example
NewGas →Businesses bringing appliances and fuels to end-users through retail, agent and distributor networks.
Portfolio example
Jibu →Financial institutions and PAYGo providers extending credit for modern-cooking appliances, fuels and related household-energy products.
Portfolio example
Sun King →Businesses and projects serving schools, public institutions, humanitarian settings, restaurants and food-processing operations.
Portfolio example
Henos Energy →Henos Energy distributes LPG to household and commercial customers in Ghana.
Projects and companies financing defined modern-cooking deployment activities, including eligible carbon-linked structures.
Portfolio example
Envirofit Carbon Holdings One →Different stages of the modern cooking value chain require different forms of capital. Spark+ combines debt, quasi-equity and project-based structures to address those needs across the investment cycle.
Senior debt · Structured and asset-backed debt
Quasi-equity
Project finance · Carbon pre-finance
Illustrative only. Individual transactions may combine instruments or span multiple parts of the value chain.
Financing supported principally by established operating cash flows and visible repayment capacity.
Financing linked to receivables, inventory, productive assets or other identifiable cash-generating exposures.
Financing for defined infrastructure, deployment or expansion projects with identifiable project revenues and controls.
Financing eligible project activities before carbon revenues are received, subject to methodology, verification, issuance and pricing risk.
Flexible growth capital for businesses whose cash-flow profile or balance-sheet capacity may not support conventional senior debt.
Financing structures and repayment profiles are aligned with expected operating cash flows and the timing of the financed activity.
Transactions are structured around identifiable repayment sources, with assumptions tested against relevant operating and market risks.
Where appropriate, facilities are supported by collateral, receivables, contractual rights or other forms of security aligned with the transaction structure.
Covenants, reporting requirements and transaction controls are calibrated to the counterparty, instrument and principal risks.
Where carbon revenues contribute to repayment, assumptions and transaction sizing reflect uncertainty in methodology, monitoring, verification, issuance timing and price.
Spark+ seeks to minimize material unhedged foreign-exchange exposure through appropriate currency matching, transaction structuring and hedging.
Every opportunity is reviewed against a consistent set of principles covering mandate fit, business quality and the risks and repayment sources of the proposed transaction.
01
Whether the opportunity sits within the Fund's modern-cooking mandate and whether Spark+ financing can meaningfully advance it.
02
The experience of management and the quality of ownership and governance arrangements.
03
The strength of end-user demand and the company's position in its market.
04
Whether the business model and expected cash flows can support the proposed financing.
05
Financial position alongside currency, regulatory and related risk considerations.
06
Expected impact and environmental and social risks, appropriate to the business model.
Impact and environmental and social considerations are integrated into investment assessment and portfolio monitoring. Where eligible and separately approved, portfolio companies may also receive Technical Assistance managed by Stichting Modern Cooking.
Investment and Technical Assistance decisions are made through separate governance and approval processes.
GROWTH CAPITAL · MEZZANINE
Flexible growth capital supporting the expansion of manufacturing and distribution capacity.
INFRASTRUCTURE · SENIOR DEBT
Senior financing linked to LPG bottling and distribution infrastructure and identifiable operating cash flows.
CARBON-LINKED PROJECT FINANCE
Project finance supporting cookstove deployment through a Ghana-based Article 6.2 program, with repayment linked in part to carbon revenues.
