CLEAN 24 HOUR
POWER ANYWHERE
HOW IT STARTED
ZOLA Electric’s roots started in the experience of our three co-founders living and traveling to Africa. They observed both off grid and on grid communities rely on dirty, expensive and hard to manage forms of energy including kerosene and diesel. No primary, integrated power source existed, it was purely inefficient backup generation, an impediment to these communities achieving their full social and economic potential. Was this a technology problem or something else?
Five years later, ZOLA Electric initially known as Off-Grid Electric was launched in Tanzania to provide solar home solutions to off-grid rural communities that lacked any grid infrastructure.
Today, ZOLA is a leading technology company with differentiated solutions that can solve any energy access problem; rural, urban, off-grid, on-grid, residential or commercial. ZOLA Electric is currently serving over 1 million users, across three continents in over 10 countries. ZOLA’s mission is to provide clean power everywhere:
300,000+
Energy Systems Installed
1 Million+
Lives impacted
10+
Countries Served
3
Continents Served
Our Executive Team
Bill Lenihan
Chief Executive Officer
Partner, Fremont Partners / Calera Capital EVP International, Switch Lighting, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Wharton MBA
Doye Ogionwo
Chief Commercial Officer
CEO, Trifant Resources CCO, Helios Towers Partner, NEWE Partners Charles Schwab Exxon-Mobil MBA, Carnegie Mellon
Martijn Bouwmeester
Chief Financial Officer
Finance Director, Johnson & Johnson Medical Multi-country work and living experience Masters in International Business, Twente University
Sau Ngosi
Chief Technology Officer
CTO, Residential Solar & Storage, Schneider Electric 20+ years engineering experience Board Director, Warm Heart of Africa Foundation
Cherilyn Vossberg
Vice President - Human Capital
15+ years in Africa Region and Global roles with Maersk Masters in Renewable Energy, Cape Town University
Robert Falcon
VP Manufacturing and Supply chain
Manager - Technical Manufacturing @ Apple Ops. Manager, Toyota GM, Eriks
Steven Van Maasakker
General Council
General Counsel, Heineken Group 20+ years General Counsel & attorney experience JD, University of Rotterdam
ZOLA Electric Board of Directors
Lyndon Rive
Director
Co-founder @ SolarCity now Tesla Energy. Co-Founder @ Everdream, Board @ NatGeo, GivePower, World Spine Care. U.S. National Underwater Hockey Team member.
Tope Lawani
Director
Co-founder and Managing Partner of Helios Investment Partners, TPG, MIT, Harvard Law, MBA @ Harvard
Nancy Pfund
Director
Founder and Managing Partner of DBL Partners, JPMorgan, Hambrecht & Quist, MA @ Stanford, MBA @ Yale
Steve Hall
Director
Managing Director @ Vulcan Capital
Bill Lenihan
Director
Partner, Fremont Partners / Calera Capital EVP International, Switch Lighting Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse Wharton MBA
Xavier Helgesen
Director
Skoll Scholar + MBA @ Oxford, Co-Founder @ Better World Books, Indaba Systems
OUR PROUD PARTNERS
Key Milestones
Our story
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2012 - Launched as "M-Power" in Tanzania
Off-Grid electric (ZOLA Electric) is launched as "M-Power" in Arusha, Tanzania, attracting its first 1,000 customers by the end of 2012.
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2013 - SOLAR CITY JOINS THE BOARD
ZOLA earns its first institutional funding in the pay-as-you-go solar sector. SolarCity founder and CEO Lyndon Rive joins the board as ZOLA launches its second generation of hardware in Tanzania.
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2014 - ZOLA Expands across TANZANIA
ZOLA rapidly expands across Tanzania with over ten thousand customers choosing the company’s products.
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2015 - LAUNCHED its 3rd GENERATION POWER PLATFORM
ZOLA raises growth capital in a funding round led by DBL Partners. Nancy Pfund joins the board. ZOLA launches its third-generation power platform, which increases power capacity 10 times over previous generations.
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2016 - ZOLA EXPANDS TO RWANDA
ZOLA launches its solar home systems in Rwanda displacing kerosene, petrol and diesel cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
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2017 - ZOLA expands to IVORY COAST
ZOLA and EDF Energy announce a joint venture to expand energy access in Ivory Coast.
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2017 - ZOLA INTRODUCED FLEX
ZOLA FLEX launched as the best-in-class plug-and-play, pre-paid solar system. ZOLA closes a growth funding round led by Helios Partners and General Electric (GE).
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2019 - POWERING 1 MILLION
ZOLA continues its rapid growth and surpasses more than 1 million daily users.
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2020 - ZOLA LAUNCHES ITS 1st INTERGRATED POWER SOLUTION
ZOLA Launches Infinity, the world’s first smart, integrated, modular power solution built for energy access.
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2021- ZOLA partners with leading distributed energy integrators and distributors.
As part of our expansion strategy, ZOLA Electric signs on major distribution partners such as; EDF, DPA, Micro-power & Econet energy, to further solve energy access problems in Africa.
Awards & Recognitions
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