ENGIE, Meridiam acquire Africa’s BTE Renewables. 2 other stories and a trivia

This line-up of stories will help you discover the latest happenings around the tech world, today

1. ENGIE, Meridiam acquires Africa’s BTE Renewables

French companies, ENGIE and Meridiam, have made an agreement to acquire BTE Renewables, a prominent renewable energy company in Africa. 

Previously owned by British investment firm Actis, BTE Renewables operates in Kenya and South Africa.

The acquisition will bring ENGIE a portfolio of over 3 GW of advanced development pipeline/projects in the growing renewables market, benefiting from a robust regulatory framework and a team of approximately 80 esteemed professionals. 

Among the operating assets included in the deal are 340 MW net of additional renewable operating assets, comprising 150 MW of onshore wind and 190 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV).

ENGIE, which already operates 1.3 GW of assets in South Africa, including over 300 MW of renewables (200 MW of concentrating solar-thermal power plants (CSP), 21 MW of solar PV assets, and 94 MW of onshore wind assets), will further strengthen its presence in the region through this acquisition, capitalizing on the industrial value of the group.

Meridiam, on the other hand, will acquire the 100 MW Kipeto Wind Farm, located approximately 70 kilometers south of Nairobi, which has been operational since July 2021. 

In addition, the deal includes the 50 MW Siruai greenfield wind project with storage, currently under development. 

The Siruai project, situated adjacent to the existing Kipeto site, is slated to become Kenya’s first battery storage facility.

Tech Trivia: What does it mean to concatenate two text strings?

A.To join them together

B. To compare their length

C. To identify common characters

D.To determine whether they are identical

Answer: see end of post

2. Invoice financing startup, Zuvy, raises $4.5m funding

Nigerian startup, Zuvy, has raised $4.5 million in debt and equity funding to support its expansion across Nigeria. 

READ ALSO:Nigeria’s Fastizers secures $2m investment. One other story and a trivia

Zuvy, which has recently emerged from stealth mode, offers an invoice discounting platform and software that enables vendors and their buyers to manage invoices and payment schedules effectively.

Zuvy operates in the fast-moving consumer goods, healthcare, and supply chain sectors. 

By providing liquidity for these receivables, Zuvy helps vendors secure new contracts and grow their businesses.

Buyers using Zuvy gain access to free invoice management software that simplifies procurement and vendor management processes.

The $4.5 million funding round was led by TLG Capital, with participation from Next Chymia Consulting HK, Dunbar Capital, Vicus Ventures, and angel investors such as David Mussafer, chairman of global private equity firm Advent International. 

3. NOMU Group secures $5m Seed Round for Product Expansion

NOMU, a innovative food-tech supply chain platform, has Tuesday announced concluding its first round of financing following the establishment of Nomu Group through a merger.

The seed round, according to the startup, was raised from prominent investors, including DIV Capital, Shurfah, Core Vision, Purity for Information Technology, as well as notable family offices in KSA such as Altoukhi Family Office and Bakr Family Office, alongside angel investors.

The funding will be utilized to expand NOMU’s B2B HORECA (Hotel/Restaurant/Café) offering, with a specific focus on enhancing services for restaurants and providing innovative financing solutions. 

NOMU’s plans include the development of a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution and an AI-powered chatbot serving as a procurement officer. 

NOMU Group was founded by Salman Attieh, Yassir El Ismaili El Idrissi, Shehab Mokhtar, and Ahmed Eldemerdash, and has its headquarters in Riyadh, KSA, with a holding structure in Abu Dhabi’s International Financial Centre. 

Trivia answer: Join Together 

Concatenation is “the action of linking things together in a series” (Oxford English Dictionary). In computer programming terms, it refers to a function that links two or more text strings together into a single string. 

Databases and spreadsheets also use concatenation functions to merge data from separate fields and cells.

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