SME Finance Forum member Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the U.S. Government’s development finance institution, has provided initial financing to SunFunder’s $85 million Solar Energy Transformation Fund which supports businesses providing solar solutions to some of the millions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa and India who lack access to electricity.

The financing is part of a $25 million commitment of senior and junior debt OPIC entered last September. Since OPIC committed financing, two other lenders have also committed loans, bringing the first close total raised to $42.5 million. This blended financing package includes $7.5 million from Calvert Impact Capital and $5 million from Ceniarth. The IKEA Foundation also provided a grant of $5 million as catalytic capital for the fund.

The Solar Energy Transformation Fund is one of a group of investment vehicles managed by SunFunder, a solar energy finance business with offices in the U.S., London and Nairobi working to scale up clean energy access in Africa and Asia by financing solar companies active in off-grid and weak-grid communities.