Investor Due Diligence to Scale Solar Refrigeration across Sub-Saharan Africa

Koolboks specializes in solar-powered refrigeration solutions, catering to households and small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) across sub-Saharan Africa. Their innovative cooling-as-a-service model leverages Pay-As-You-Go technology to make solar refrigeration more accessible.

CrossBoundary Advisory provided key market intelligence and due diligence support to Acumen, an interested investor in Koolboks. The advisory service aimed to assess the market fit, size, and competitive landscape of Koolboks’ Pay-As-You-Go solar refrigeration offerings within Nigeria’s residential and commercial customer segments.

The mandate for CrossBoundary was to facilitate Acumen’s investment decision-making process by rigorously assessing Koolboks’ market positioning and future prospects. This involved:

• Analyzing product-market fit within various customer groups in Nigeria, the company’s largest operational market
• Sizing the Nigerian market for solar refrigeration to provide an estimate of the addressable market and growth potential
• Developing a snapshot of the competitive landscape to understand Koolboks’ place among market participants

This engagement was executed through USAID’s Nigeria Power Sector Program.

To serve Acumen’s investment objectives, CrossBoundary Advisory implemented a layered approach to dissect the market intricacies Koolboks operates in.

Product-Market Fit Assessment: We created a framework to identify four key customer archetypes within Nigeria’s residential and commercial sectors that could benefit from Koolboks’ solar refrigeration solutions.

Market Sizing: Through a dual top-down and bottom-up approach, we evaluated Nigeria’s solar refrigeration market. The purpose was to determine the overall market size and its projected growth rate, thereby helping Acumen better understand the scale of the opportunity.

Competitive Landscape Assessment: A comprehensive review of existing and potential competitors was conducted to understand Koolboks’ relative positioning. This allowed Acumen to gauge the company’s market share and better visualize its trajectory in a crowded market space.

Through these steps, CrossBoundary aimed to present a well-rounded view of Koolboks’ business proposition, helping Acumen arrive at an informed investment decision.