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TLG Capital has closed a credit facility for Koolboks, which sells solar-powered freezers and appliances to traders, small businesses and corporate customers in Nigeria and beyond.
The facility gives Koolboks the working capital to fund the inventory it needs to meet growing demand across African markets, and to grow its retail and appliance partnerships.
It combines TLG’s private credit with a guarantee from Cascador, a Nigeria-focused platform for growth-stage founders, delivered in partnership with Morgan Stanley.
The deal brings TLG’s commitments to $65 million across 16 Nigerian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) over the past two years.
Koolboks was founded in Paris, France, in 2018 by Ayoola Dominic and Deborah Gaël to make reliable cooling accessible and affordable in markets where unreliable electricity remains a major barrier to economic activity. Across Africa, small businesses and informal traders lose income every day because they cannot properly preserve food, beverages and other temperature-sensitive products.
The company’s solar-powered freezers combine solar panels, patented ice-battery technology and connected pay-as-you-go capabilities, providing cooling day and night, including during power outages. They also help customers reduce their dependence on costly diesel generators and ice blocks.
Koolboks has sold more than 15,000 units to date. The company, which assembles its products in Lagos, employs around 400 people across Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda, and has shipped to more than 25 markets. Its Koolbuy platform also extends the pay-as-you-go technology to household appliances from major brands.
Isha Doshi, co-founder and partner at TLG Capital, said: “Koolboks has built an incredibly innovative product that addresses critical challenges for individuals and SMEs. Its ability to scale in recent years is a testament to the ingenuity of its cold chain solution, and its ability to meet the demand across many African markets. Along the way they’ve assembled a fantastic set of partners who recognise that, and Cascador stands out among them: their partnerships run deep, and they keep showing up with the right structure to back businesses they believe in. Having completed our second deal with them in the span of a few weeks, we are proud to have such a proactive and impact-aligned partner.”
Ayoola Dominic, chief executive officer of Koolboks, commented: “TLG recognised what our product means for our customers, and found the right kind of financing to back it at the pace that we needed. We have serious ambitions to address cold-chain infrastructure across Africa, and this facility gives us the capital and support to chase them. The Cascador team has stood behind us since well before this transaction, and having them and Morgan Stanley guarantee this funding gives us a strong base to keep building from.”
Trish Thomas, chief executive officer of Cascador, added: “We’ve partnered with Koolboks for several years now, and watching what Ayoola, Deborah, and the team have built in that time has been one of the most rewarding parts of our work. Their product clearly solves a real problem that exists across countless markets, and they are building at a scale we always believed was possible. TLG Capital is why we can move on these deals: Cascador finds local champions, but the question is always around positioning them with the right type of financing. With two deals closed in a matter of weeks, TLG and Cascador have identified a scalable product that will allow us to reach the businesses, countries, and sectors that matter most.”
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