Energize Africa is a fantastic way of supporting people in a sustainable way. I started with a relatively small investment and just keep reinvesting the interest and principal amount. I am not doing t... See more
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Too many companies going bust in the past and losing investors money. Companies clearly not assessed properly, hopefully this will change
Very easy to invest in projects that do good in Africa and help the climate, within a tax-free IFISA. The platform makes keeping track of all one's investments very easy. Obviously with this type of i... See more
Company replied
Energise Africa enables small or larger investors to invest money in African projects to provide solar energy to small villages and businesses. Most African villages have no energy sources. This is... See more
Company details
Written by the company
Put your money to work fighting climate change. Target up to 8% annual returns investing in companies that provide solar energy access to African families. Start with as little as £50. Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high - risk investment and you are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong.
Join thousands of investors bringing light to sub-Saharan Africa!
Written by the company
- Energise Africa enables you to invest directly in de-risked projects that brigh clean energy access.
- Register an account with Energise Africa and you can join thousands of UK investors who are investing from as little as £50 to support pioneering businesses bringing clean, solar energy access to off-grid homes in sub-Saharan Africa, targeting returns of up to 8%. Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high - risk investment and you are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong.
Contact info
The Old Music Hall, 106 - 108 Cowley Road,, OX4 1JE, Oxford, United Kingdom
- help@energiseafrica.com
- energiseafrica.com
4.7
Excellent
645 reviews
Asks customers to review
This company invites their customers to review, whether positive or negative
Replied to 100% of negative reviews
Typically replies within 1 week
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Goes from strength to strength
I like this way of helping Africa and the developing world, reading about their positive projects and recycling the returns with interest into the next project. Have participated in at least 20 projects now and it has been a pleasure to be involved.
19 June 2022
Reply from Energise Africa
Hello
We just wanted to say a quick thank you for leaving a 5-star review of Energise Africa on TrustPilot. We appreciate you taking the time to do this and are delighted you are happy with the service we provide!
Yours,
The Energise Africa Team
Energise Africa is not so great at keeping investors fully informed when things go wong
Energise Africa is a great investment vehicle when it works. Sometimes things go wrong and investments (companies; bonds) falter or fail causing suspended or cancelled payments. All the appropriate warnings are clearly made. Energise Africa is not, however, so great at keeping investors fully informed in timely fashion when things go wrong; months can go by without any information forthcoming, which is unsatisfactory. I will nonetheless continue cautiously to invest.
25 May 2022
Reply from Energise Africa
Hello,Thank you for your review and your continued support of Energise Africa. We are sorry that you feel we have not communicated with you enough over some of the recent restructuring of debt for some of the solar businesses we have lent to. These negotiations are never easy and it will take some time before we know the full picture, but we are keeping our investors informed as best we can throughout the process and are striving for the best possible outcome for them. We do our best to provide our investors with regular updates on all projects and communicate when we believe that an offer may not perform as anticipated. We do take your comments on board, however, and will continue to try to improve our communications with investors. Thank you again for your review if you have any further questions, please get in touch help@energiseafrica.com
Yours,
The Energise Africa Team
Fastest finger first
The concept is great but the projects are funded so quickly you miss out unless you have constant access to email.
24 May 2022
Reply from Energise Africa
Hi David
Thank you for leaving a review of Energise Africa. We do appreciate the frustration of missing out when investments fill quickly, as is often the case on Energise Africa. We do send an email to everyone who has signed up for alerts when a new investment opportunity is live on the site. However, due to the popularity of the bonds, unfortunately, some potential investors miss out. We hope to have more opportunities live on our site in the future that will give more people the opportunity to invest. Many thanks again and if you have any further questions, please get in touch help@energiseafrica.com
Yours, The Energise Africa team
Reply from Energise Africa
We just wanted to say a quick thank you for leaving a 4-star review of Energise Africa on TrustPilot. We appreciate you taking the time to do this and are delighted you are happy with the service we provide! If you have any comments or suggestions to improve our service, please get in touch at help@energiseafrica.com
Yours
The Energise Africa Team
Great ethical investment service
Great service that lets you invest in clean energy. Appropriate warnings in place about the financial risk. No annoying sales blather. Loads of excellent opportunities coming through.
28 April 2022
Reply from Energise Africa
Hello
We just wanted to say a quick thank you for leaving a 5-star review of Energise Africa on TrustPilot. We appreciate you taking the time to do this and are delighted you are happy with the service we provide!
Yours,
The Energise Africa Team
Well structured investments that have…
Well structured investments that have good impact. It would be perfect if they avoided some minor jurisdictional hiccups in the past and bring more deals through, since they tend to be fully subscribed in less time than it takes to read a full prospectus.
28 April 2022
Reply from Energise Africa
We just wanted to say a quick thank you for leaving a 4-star review of Energise Africa on TrustPilot. We appreciate you taking the time to do this and are delighted you are happy with the service we provide! If you have any comments or suggestions to improve our service, please get in touch at help@energiseafrica.com
Yours
The Energise Africa Team
Problem adding to my wallet so ended up…
Problem adding to my wallet so ended up investing only from the balance in the wallet.
27 April 2022
Reply from Energise Africa
We just wanted to say a quick thank you for leaving a 4-star review of Energise Africa on TrustPilot. We appreciate you taking the time to do this and are delighted you are happy with the service we provide! If you have any comments or suggestions to improve our service, please get in touch at help@energiseafrica.com
Yours
The Energise Africa Team
Great system to invest in worthy causes
Great system to invest in very worthy causes.
Platform is super easy to navigate and see the key information about new offers and then choose to invest.
Have recently set up an IFISA and it was very simple since I was already registered.
27 April 2022
Reply from Energise Africa
Hello
We just wanted to say a quick thank you for leaving a 5-star review of Energise Africa on TrustPilot. We appreciate you taking the time to do this and are delighted you are happy with the service we provide!
Yours,
The Energise Africa Team
I have invested with Eergise Africa for…
I have invested with Eergise Africa for 4 years now. The interest payments and capital repayments have come in on time, so I have reinvested the money, up to a limit and after that I withdraw the interest so it has made me some money over the years During the pandemic some interest payment were delayed which was undestandable but I was told about this in advance. I am happy to know that my investment is helping development in Africa in a sustainable way.
27 April 2022
Reply from Energise Africa
Hello
We just wanted to say a quick thank you for leaving a 5-star review of Energise Africa on TrustPilot. We appreciate you taking the time to do this and are delighted you are happy with the service we provide!
Yours,
The Energise Africa Team
Help Africa, help environment and get a good return
Excellent opportunities to invest in solar power, so a plus for the environment; supplying families in Africa with affordable electricity so they benefit from light to study in the evenings and not have to use kerosene lamps; plus a good interest rate. What an excellent way to invest my money.
25 April 2022
Good security advice and warnings given…
Good security advice and warnings given for its unsecured investments.
24 April 2022
Reply from Energise Africa
Hello
We just wanted to say a quick thank you for leaving a 5-star review of Energise Africa on TrustPilot. We appreciate you taking the time to do this and are delighted you are happy with the service we provide!
Yours,
The Energise Africa Team
Reply from Energise Africa
Hello
We just wanted to say a quick thank you for leaving a 5-star review of Energise Africa on TrustPilot. We appreciate you taking the time to do this and are delighted you are happy with the service we provide!
Yours,
The Energise Africa Team
Great company
Great company, doing great work. So easy to get involved and help people as well as yourselves.
22 April 2022
Gives one a chance to do some good in…
Gives one a chance to do some good in Africa ( along the lines of teach a man to fish ) and you have the chance of earning some interest as well.
22 April 2022
Unprompted review
Reply from Energise Africa
Hello
We just wanted to say a quick thank you for leaving a 5-star review of Energise Africa on TrustPilot. We appreciate you taking the time to do this and are delighted you are happy with the service we provide!
Yours,
The Energise Africa Team
Covid seems to have hit this business model hard
It started out very well. Mini bonds are issued by companies to fund the installation of, for example, solar powered lighting. Customers pay for the systems in instalments and your capital is returned with interest over a period, which is specified at the start of the investment. It allows people to invest in projects that have a positive impact on the environment.
So far so good. Then covid arrived and many of the companies involved in raising finance started to raise additional funds through 'refinancing' bonds - basically cash flow to tide them over the covid period. These carried a higher rate of interest due to the higher risk involved.
Then one company started to run into difficulties and requested a two month payment holiday. This turned into a 'repayment of interest only' arrangement for a temporary period which turned into a standstill on all payments while discussions continue.
A second company started to run into difficulties and requested a delay to all payments due in the first quarter but two months on from the last update, no further news has been provided.
A third company has not made the repayments due in March 2022 and an enquiry to Energise Africa has met with no response. This company was raising funds for new projects as recently as January 2022.
I don't hold Energise Africa 'responsible' for the financial failure of the companies issuing the bonds. I'm an experienced investor and know the risks. After all, no-one predicted covid and the higher rate of return on these investments does indicate these are higher risk and not only are returns are not guaranteed, there is a risk that the capital invested will not be repaid.
My issue is that enquiries to the company about non repayment elicit no response at all until they are ready to issue an update. But to be honest if this is two or three months after the initial failure to make a payment you already know something is wrong. You don't even get the courtesy of a 'thanks for your email, we'll get back to you with an answer when we can' response. They are pretty prompt at responding to general enquiries, they just seem to ignore emails when they don't have a ready answer.
Payments are now also seem to be taking longer to be made. You could generally expect repayments of capital and payments of interest to be paid round about mid month. Now payments may take up to the end of the month to be made.
It's a shame as it is a model which allowed people to invest in worthwhile projects and earn a good rate of return. But as an investor I would sooner know bad news up front, rather than the emails which hint at temporary issues that usually seem to turn into worse news down the line, or silence.
15 April 2022
Unprompted review
Reply from Energise Africa
Hello Helen,
Many thanks for sharing your review, we appreciate your feedback and we are very sorry to learn that we did not live up to our customer service expectations in your recent experience with us.
To address the issue of us not replying to your message, we are very sorry to say that, upon investigation, your message was unfortunately missed by us as it went to a spam folder. We have put checks in place now to ensure this will not happen again. One of our team will respond to your message fully by email.
To address your question about the updates on individual payouts, we are committed to communicating with investors on the performance of their investments and when there are delays in repayments from a particular solar business, we aim to let investors know about it as soon as possible. However, negotiations can often be complex and it can take some time before we have the correct information to share.
You are right that, like many industries, the solar home system market has been challenged by the effects of COVID, which has resulted in delays in repayments in some instances. We appreciate your ongoing support and thank you again for raising this issue with us.
Kind regards,
The Energise Africa Team.
Great organisation
Great organisation. Simple to use and great opportunities for a greater good.
27 March 2022
Reply from Energise Africa
Hello
We just wanted to say a quick thank you for leaving a 5-star review of Energise Africa on TrustPilot. We appreciate you taking the time to do this and are delighted you are happy with the service we provide!
Yours,
The Energise Africa Team
Good reliable service that keeps you…
Good reliable service that keeps you informed. Would recommend.
25 March 2022
Reply from Energise Africa
Hello
We just wanted to say a quick thank you for leaving a 5-star review of Energise Africa on TrustPilot. We appreciate you taking the time to do this and are delighted you are happy with the service we provide!
Yours,
The Energise Africa Team
An excellent investment helping people…
An excellent investment helping people to have a good lifestyle and to start businesses. Feedback from the investment is good and interest is usually paid on time.
18 February 2022
Reply from Energise Africa
Hello
We just wanted to say a quick thank you for leaving a 5-star review of Energise Africa on TrustPilot. We appreciate you taking the time to do this and are delighted you are happy with the service we provide!
Yours,
The Energise Africa Team
I like it that Energise Africa always…
I like it that Energise Africa always asks if you can afford to invest as the risks are higher than investments with lower returns.
Janet
28 January 2022
Reply from Energise Africa
Hello
We just wanted to say a quick thank you for leaving a 5-star review of Energise Africa on TrustPilot. We appreciate you taking the time to do this and are delighted you are happy with the service we provide!
Yours,
The Energise Africa Team
Reply from Energise Africa
Hello
We just wanted to say a quick thank you for leaving a 5-star review of Energise Africa on TrustPilot. We appreciate you taking the time to do this and are delighted you are happy with the service we provide!
Yours,
The Energise Africa Team
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