African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) has invested through its African Infrastructure Investment Fund 3 (AIIF3) in Starsight Power Utility, as part of a $30m equity round.

AIIM invested together with one of the largest Africa-focused private investment firms, Helios Investment Partners, acting on behalf of funds it advises.

Starsight is a Nigeria-based energy services company offering solar-diesel-battery hybrid and efficient cooling and lighting solutions to its commercial and industrial clients.

The company is in the process of rolling out its services to a number of core clients in the financial services and energy sectors, and has a target pipeline of over 1000 sites in the medium term. 

AIIM’s investment in Starsight is financed through its AIIF3 fund which invests primarily across the power, transportation and energy infrastructure sub-sectors in sub-Saharan Africa.

Olusola Lawson, Investment Director and Head of West Africa at AIIM, said: “As long-term infrastructure investors, we want to make both a positive and sustainable impact, as well as targeting investments with attractive return profiles. Nigeria must address its significant power supply deficit to spur the economic growth required to create jobs for its fast-growing population. Starsight is offering a unique solution for companies that will reduce their cost of power and improve their ease of doing business.”

Tony Carr, CEO of Starsight, added: “Starsight is pleased to welcome AIIF3 as a significant shareholder. Our off-grid energy-saving and cooling solutions are focused on delivering clean power to our customers while reducing waste through innovation; we see AIIM as a long term partner with extensive local knowledge that will help us drive future growth, further expand our customer base and ultimately deliver value to our shareholders.”

Including Starsight, AIIM has made five investments on behalf of the AIIF3 fund.

Other investments are AIIM Hydroneo, a pan-African hydro power development platform, DSM Corridor Group, a specialist dry bulk terminal operator in Tanzania, Albatros Energy Mali, a 90 megawatt (MW) thermal power station and Amandi Energy Limited, a 200MW thermal power station in Ghana.