New Energy Asset Financing company launched by Davis & Shirtliff and 4R Digital

• DayLipa will provide flexible and affordable financing for income-generating energy assets
• Company has been founded in partnership between Davis & Shirtliff and 4R Digital, with support from Shell Foundation and the UK’s FCDO
• Initial focus will be on financing solar pumps, with ambitions to reach >150k customers, including 30% women, in five years

A new company, DayLipa Finance Limited, has been launched to provide flexible and affordable financing for customers to purchase and use of a range of energy assets that can increase incomes and improve environmental resilience across Sub-Saharan Africa.

DayLipa Finance Limited (DFL) was developed in partnership between Davis & Shirtliff (D&S) and 4R Digital. The company will finance products developed and sold by D&S, providing cost-effective sales and distribution network through which to reach customers throughout Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Davis & Shirtliff will provide product, supply chain and distribution and 4R Digital will provide digital finance-based tech infrastructure to support the joint venture.

UK charity Shell Foundation, with co-funding from UK aid from the UK government as part of the Catalysing Agriculture by Scaling Energy Ecosystems, are supporting 4R Digital and Davis & Shirtliff in targeting hard-to-reach customer segments by testing a range of technologies enabled with pay-as-you-go and pay-as-you-use[1] functionality, and different financing models that can be scaled in a financially viable manner.

In the initial launch, DFL will finance solar irrigation pumps, which have been shown to increase income by 40-60% for customers. DFL will aim to reach >150k customers including 30% women customers with solar pumps, grain mills and other PUE assets in 5 years, and avoid CO2e by 204kt.[2]

“We can leverage our significant market presence and knowledge to provide access for many thousands of smallholder farmers to affordable solar water pumping and irrigation. Flexible financing is key to delivering this and our ambition is for DayLipa Finance to provide this financing, eventually across a wide range of productive use assets in all of our markets”. Alec Davis, Chair, Davis & Shirtliff.

“Digital finance and connectivity enable clean energy assets to be monitored and managed remotely, providing the opportunity to finance these assets over time. This enables flexible repayment schemes, as well as live customer support, regardless of the size of their smallholding. In this way digital solutions enable smallholders to acquire, own and use physical assets while also building their financial track records”. Nick Hughes, Founder and CEO, 4R Digital.

“This new venture leverages the expertise and reach of the respective founding organisations to address a critical challenge: how do we make the energy transition work for everyone – Global North and South, men and women, financier and farmer – and empower living incomes through clean energy access. By piloting solar irrigation with a proven industry leader, we are excited to see the scale potential to other productive use appliances, new markets and ultimately millions of new customers.” Jonathan Berman, CEO, Shell Foundation.

About Davis & Shirtliff

The Davis & Shirtliff Group (D&S) is one of SSA’s largest and most respected Energy & Water solutions suppliers. Founded in 1946, a family-owned business, D&S has developed its own range of products including water pumps, irrigation & solar equipment amongst other things under the DayLiff brand, which it designs, manufactures, and assembles. Davis and Shirtliff has presence through 90 branches in 10 SSA countries generating an annual turnover of >$100m. With a 10,000m2 distribution center and an upcoming R&D center of excellence in Tatu city and a staff strength of >1000, Davis & Shirtliff is well positioned to leverage its distribution and financial strength to drive scale to Daylipa Finance’s solution.

About 4R Digital

4R Digital is a B2B digital connectivity and payments platform provider that enables businesses to offer pay-as-you-go (PAYG) and other forms of flexible financing to their customers. 4R Digital is led by Nick Hughes who developed and led Kenya’s mobile money service M-PESA while with the Vodafone Group. Nick also co-founded M-KOPA which has financed more than 3 million customers throughout Africa utilising the PAYG platform that Nick developed. The 4R Digital Founders and Senior Managers have extensive experience and expertise in developing large scale digital platforms, designing and delivering digital financial services, and taking a range of PAYG products to market at scale.

About Shell Foundation

Shell Foundation is an endowed, UK-registered charity that catalyses clean energy innovation and unlocks inclusive investments in Africa and India, empowering millions of underserved customers – of which half are women – to earn a living income.

To achieve its charitable mission, Shell Foundation supports early-stage innovation and then partners with finance and corporate organisations to accelerate scale. It has had a co-funding partnership with the UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development office since 2016, with specific workstreams on venture building, research, and agriculture.