GREEN POWER
Global hedge fund Alphabit backs SA solar start-up
The Sun Exchange is also raising capital via an initial coin offering
The Sun Exchange, a Cape Town-based blockchain start-up that lets individuals buy into solar projects, has received a $500,000 seed investment from global hedge fund Alphabit. The company raised $1.6m in 2017 from local investment firm Kalon Venture Partners and US investors, and plans to raise at least $5.4m via an initial coin offering, which it will run until the end of December. The Sun Exchange’s platform lets individuals buy solar panels or individual cells and then lease them to end users, who pay monthly rentals to the investors. The platform uses blockchain technology, a public online ledger of transactions best known as the technology behind digital currencies. Alphabit CEO Liam Robertson said The Sun Exchange “has potential to disrupt two of today’s most dysfunctional centralised global systems — energy and finance … I’m convinced this will be one of the best equity investments Alphabit has made to date”. Alphabit, which is registered in Dubai and the Cayman Islands, was ...
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