- Pele Energy Group (PEG) is proud to announce the addition of 2 minority shareholders to its ownership, effective 31 January 2023.
- Adhila Mayet, an employee of Pele Green Energy (PGE), the renewable energy subsidiary of Pele Energy Group, has acquired a minority shareholding in the business, alongside E Squared Investments (E2).
- E2 facilitated the funding for Mayet as well as acquiring their own minority interest in the business.
- This transaction is in line with Pele’s founders’ strategy to enable employees to invest in and participate in the growth of Pele Energy Group.
Mayet is also an Allan Gray Fellow (a graduate of the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation). E2 is an equity impact investments fund that backs Allan Gray alumni into growth businesses.
This transaction is aligned with E Squared’s commitment to their late Founder, Dr. Allan Gray. His vision was to alleviate poverty through the creation of meaningful earning opportunities for South Africans, with a mission to empower responsible entrepreneurs to become the catalysts for economic development, transformation and social upliftment in South Africa.
E Squared Ventures (E2V), through which this investment was made, is an offering that was created to provide a funding and support vehicle for entrepreneurial Allan Gray Fellows, like Adhila Mayet. The vehicle supports fellows who are creating unique entrepreneurial ventures with the capacity to scale and create long-term, positive impact for South Africa.
Through this investment, E Squared hopes to help create further awareness of the opportunities and benefits of non-traditional funding into new energy infrastructure. Through Pele’s IPP subsidiary, Pele Green Energy, the investment will contribute to green recovery, and highlight the need for more investment into young, early-stage entrepreneurs as a means for overall economic recovery.
Gqi Raoleka, Managing Director of Pele Green Energy explains “we are excited about this unique transaction with E2 and are proud to partner with a business that is committed to the creation of meaningful empowerment of talented young South Africans.” Raoleka concludes “this transaction further demonstrates our commitment to growing Pele through our own people by offering them the opportunity to have a stake in our growing business, which enables us to deepen alignment as we continue to create additional generation infrastructure and support expansion in our business.”
“There is no doubt that IPPs can help realise the full spectrum of socio-economic benefits of such an energy transition, but they can’t easily do it without targeted support. To meet aggressive net-zero targets by 2050, renewable energy capacity will need to rapidly expand, and we aim to make a meaningful contribution to the solution for our emerging economy by empowering renewable energy ventures like Pele,” says E Squared Chief Investment Officer, Gladwyn Leeuw. “Pele Green joins a growing E2V portfolio consisting of 13 other Allan Gray Fellow-led ventures and it’s at this stage that the provision of non-financial support to fledgling entrepreneurs is most critical,” he adds.
Of importance is that a substantial portion of the investment will be used for strategic initiatives that will deliver impact for the subsidiary, Pele Green Energy. This buy in transaction is the first of its kind for impact investor E Squared as it looks to back experienced AG Fellows in industry to acquire equity ownership in progressive and impactful firms. The transaction also represents E Squared’s ability to fund complex opportunities that are long term, traditionally capital intensive, and beyond its usual early-stage investment offering.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
