About

RDG Collective began in 2018 with a single product idea: a solar home system designed from the ground up to meet the demands of rural Zambians. But that was only the starting point for a much larger plan. The company saw that households and small businesses would need a whole ecosystem of solar appliances to capitalise on their newfound access to renewable energy. In a country where 60% of the population still lack electricity – mostly in rural areas – a company with the right infrastructure, service reach and pay-as-you-go financing model could bring much more than just power to its customers. It could deliver irrigation pumps, refrigerators for corner shops, smartphones, televisions – and a world of possibilities for enterprise and job creation.

Then the pandemic hit. Covid-19 put the brakes on Zambia’s economy, and RDG Collective lost its main source of funding and supply of products all at once. This proved to be the beginning of a very difficult span of years in the country, marked by high inflation, disrupted supply chains and a drought that destroyed half of Zambia’s harvest. These were inauspicious times to build a whole new solar energy ecosystem.

Our support 

During this challenging period, RDG Collective approached GET.invest for support. An advisory team from the GET.invest Finance Catalyst started working with the company on the pivotal task of creating a financial model, closely involving the founder to ensure ownership and transfer of lessons learned.

Once the financial model was implemented, conversations about where and how to look for funding began: the GET.invest advisory team made introductions to potential partners in their funding network, legal support was provided and due diligence was conducted to finalise deals, ensuring the at-times complex finance offers were in the best interest of the company and its growing base of customers. After RDG Collective’s first success in raising capital, the company was able to hire a chief financial officer, and one of the advisors was involved in interviewing and filling the position successfully.

The outcome

With GET.invest’s support, RDG Collective first secured €3.8 million in funding from Beyond the Grid Fund Africa (BGFA) and ElectriFI, managed by EDFI Management Company. With this it rapidly grew its offering and sales network, becoming Zambia’s only company to offer products like solar water pumps and solar fridges on 30-month pay-as-you-go terms. Following the first success, a €2 million debt facility with OikoCredit closed in 2023, and a €1.25 million debt agreement with Acumen’s H2R fund followed in 2024. The latter is an innovative agreement with Acumen and a manufacturer who will supply the full value in inventory. RDG Collective will repay at a variable interest rate determined by a set of social impact indicators – allowing the company to fulfil its intention of serving the hardest-to-reach households at the base of the economic pyramid.

RDG Collective is also part of a group of BGFA awardees using the Prospect data platform, developed by the Access to Energy Institute (A2EI) with GET.invest support. Once onboarding is finished, Prospect will generate quarterly reports based on RDG Collective’s real-time data – avoiding hours of manual data preparation, correction and clarification. By making reporting dramatically faster and clearer, Prospect will speed up funding deployment, which will ultimately get solar products more quickly into the hands of customers who can put them to profitable use.

Experiencing rapid growth, the company has already sold more than half of its new inventory. It has expanded from fewer than 2,000 customers in 2020 to over 30,000 today, and from two provinces in Zambia to the whole country, not to mention a venture into the Democratic Republic of Congo, which the company regards as one of the most promising off-grid markets in Africa. Through it all, RDG Collective is staying true to its name and pursuing this growth as a collective ambition: through the hard work of its network of agents, the entrepreneurship of its customers, and the support of trusted partners.

Disclaimer: This story was last updated in January 2025.