Innovations
In our work with businesses on the 'front lines', we often identify market gaps no one is solving. Innovations is our platform to launch and run new organizations & partnerships to bridge these gaps.
Arcadia
Arcadia embeds high-capacity Analysts to work full-time with African businesses for 3-6 months to address critical business needs by understanding the bigger picture, breaking down problems, thoughtfully planning, and getting work done. We improve operational processes, refine financial controls and reporting systems, conduct market research and analysis to inform growth and expansion and conduct quantitative analysis to help evaluate performance.
UOMA
UOMA is a dedicated and neutral intermediary, focused on accelerating the growth of off-grid energy access in Uganda to enable universal energy access. It was borne out of a partnership between the Shell Foundation, DFID and USAID / Power Africa under their Scaling Off-Grid Energy: Grand Challenge for Development (SOGE) partnership, and designed by Open Capital.
Since 2017, our activities have focused on expanding access to finance for solar operators and reaching unserved populations in Uganda, while also supporting productive use technology and strengthening the enabling environment for off-grid energy uptake, increasing affordability, improved access for low-income households, economic benefits for off-grid users, and accelerated progress towards universal energy access.
VentureBuilder
VentureBuilder (VB) is a blended financing vehicle developed by Open Capital and Catalyst Off-Grid Advisors. It is pioneering a new model to support and scale African-owned and managed distributors by providing deep technical expertise and early stage equity capital. VB has made early-stage equity investments across Africa and delivered Enterprise Development Support to help companies scale. VB has received capital from Facebook (Meta), USAID, and Shell and DOEN Foundations, as well as Good Energies and Signify Foundations.
Talent to Transform Africa
Talent to Transform Africa (TTA) is designed and implemented by Open Capital, in partnership with Argidius Foundation, Vitol Foundation, PaceAble Foundation, and Blue Haven Initiative. We aim to embed high-capacity Analysts to to support locally-founded and managed African Small & Growing Businesses to address talent and bandwidth gaps in finance, operations, and marketing. To date, we have supported >50 SMEs across 12 African countries, resulting in improved team capacity, enhanced financial management including financial planning and controls, strengthened operations, expanded customer reach ,and increased revenues and access to capital. For SMEs in Africa interested in receiving tailored and seconded support, apply for the program below.
Green Genset Facility (GGF)
OCA supported the design of the Green Genset Facility (GGF), a not-for-profit facility that ensures the replacement of fuel generators - stimulating local economic development while mitigating carbon emissions. The facility addresses the lack of accessible and affordable working capital — seen as the biggest obstacle that distributors face in procuring solar generators from suppliers. The GGF aims to make it simple and transparent for distributors to buy solar-powered generators, accelerating a move away from fossil fuel alternatives. OCA supported the Access to Energy Institute (A2EI) in the initial conceptualization, design, and operationalization of the GGF.
Market Institution Facility (MIF)
Designed and led implementation of a new $25M Market Institution Facility, a multi-donor initiative to support market-building institutions in the distributed renewable energy space. Open Capital designed the facility's operations and governance, then led implementation for 18 months, support fundraising for a scale-up phase, and identified and transitioned implementation to CLASP. MIF is funded by Shell Foundation, FCDO, and SIDA and its objective is to enable another $5 billion of capital for the sector, supporting key industry policies in 20 Sub-Saharan African countries, and enabling clean energy access for millions of unserved Africans.
Talent Diagnostic
Across 1600+ client engagements, we’ve seen first-hand how talent challenges can constrain growth if they are not addressed. Blending our experience in the region with extensive research on global best practices, we developed the Talent Diagnostic which offers a tailored review of African company's talent management systems.
The Talent Diagnostic is a free anonymous online survey tool that assesses strengths and weaknesses in organization’s talent systems, highlighting opportunities for improvement.