Uganda’s gnuGrid Africa has raised US$250,000 to distribute “Solar Sentra“, its digital solution in Uganda and across Africa. gnuGrid Africa says the funds were raised from a number of investors based in the United States of America.
In November 2019, the startup raised US$50,000 to help it further develop, pilot, and launch Solar Sentra in Uganda as it pushes for a Series A round of $500,000.
The $250,000 is part of its $500,000 Series A with another tranch coming in the following months.
“We want to focus on the off-grid solar energy market in Uganda and other markets in Africa by offering the Solar Sentra solution for monitoring these off-grids. We also want to build a strong and competent management team to take charge of the development of our business,” announced the company.
Founded in early 2019 by James Dailey and David Opio, gnuGrid is a Uganda-based fin-tech and clean-tech startup building products a digital Credit Reference Bureaus for Informal Financial Institutions, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) for Solar Companies, Solar Energy Intel -IoT, and Smart Battery for Off-Grid communities.
gnuGrid has built Solar Sentra, an AI-optimised sensor to remotely monitor solar systems and collect data on power usage. The system helps users cut down downtime of solar systems, plan for systems maintenance and gather performance data for timely use.
The Ugandan clean-tech social enterprise aims to foster energy inclusion of Uganda’s off-grid population (80%, nearly 33 million people) through working with and equipping solar companies with digital tools and systems.
