Odyssey Energy Solutions, the Boulder-based digital platform that has become the operational backbone for Nigeria’s state-backed electrification programmes, has raised $74 million in fresh equity and debt to expand its distributed renewable energy financing model across Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The funding comprises a $27 million equity round and $47 million in debt. New equity investors include Broadscale Group, FMO and Morocco’s Al Mada Ventures, with continued participation from existing backers Union Square Ventures, Equal Ventures, Abstract Ventures, Twelve Below, FJ Labs, MCJ and Transition Ventures. Debt financiers include British International Investment, Belgium’s BIO, the Facility for Energy Inclusion represented by Cygnum Capital, and the Energy Entrepreneurs Growth Fund represented by TripleJump. The raise brings Odyssey’s total capital raised to $94 million, following a $15 million Series A in May 2023.
Bridging the upstream financing gap
Founded in 2017, Odyssey operates an end-to-end technology platform that connects more than 6,000 solar installers and engineering, procurement and construction companies with financiers and equipment suppliers across more than 50 countries. The company has facilitated access to $3.6 billion in capital for distributed energy projects and unlocked 1.5 GW of projects to date.
Its procurement platform, launched in 2024, aggregates equipment orders across smaller buyers to secure volume pricing and provides embedded supply-chain credit. The model is designed to address a chronic financing gap that Odyssey’s co-founder and chief executive Emily McAteer says has long constrained the sector.
“The focus of financing for distributed renewable energy has historically been on post-construction capital — funding that flows once a project is built,” McAteer said. “That has left a significant gap upstream, where thousands of small and medium EPCs and installers lack the working capital needed to procure equipment, complete construction, and unlock customer payments. Odyssey bridges this gap directly, providing companies with the equipment pricing and financing they need to accelerate project delivery.”
The announcement comes against a backdrop of surging demand for distributed solar across Odyssey’s core markets. In Nigeria, diesel backup generators supply more electricity than grid-connected power plants, according to the International Finance Corporation, and diesel prices rose more than 93 per cent between February and April 2026 following supply disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz. In India, where Odyssey’s platform has grown 205 per cent over the past 12 months, new domestic manufacturing requirements for solar components are reshaping supply chains, while rapid data centre construction driven by rising AI compute demand is adding further urgency to distributed solar and storage deployment.
Dominant role in Nigeria’s electrification push
Odyssey’s deepest institutional footprint is in Nigeria, where it serves as the mandatory digital platform for the Rural Electrification Agency. The company is the exclusive technology framework used by the REA and the World Bank to run the Nigeria Electrification Project — a $350 million initiative — and its successor, the $750 million Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) programme.
DARES aims to provide electricity access to 17.5 million Nigerians by deploying up to 1,500 mini-grids and 1.5 million standalone solar home systems. Developers must use the Odyssey platform to submit proposals, track performance and receive results-based financing payments. The platform also integrates geospatial intelligence tools from VIDA for site identification.
Last year, Odyssey secured a $7.5 million facility from British International Investment to support mini-grid deployment under the DARES programme. The new $74 million raise will allow for further expansion of the procurement platform, which Odyssey says is critical as EPCs and distributed energy developers grow at unprecedented rates.
Solarising Nigeria’s telecom towers
Odyssey has also established itself as a key partner for commercial infrastructure operators. In May 2025, the company announced a Tower Solarization Programme with IHS Nigeria, which operates more than 16,000 towers across the country. Under the programme, Odyssey provides tendering software to recruit solar EPCs with mini-grid sites near tower locations, manages energy billing and payments, offers real-time performance analytics, and digitises the full energy lifecycle from contracting to monitoring.
“This partnership demonstrates how Odyssey unlocks the potential of distributed renewable energy for commercial clients,” McAteer said at the time. “By digitising tender and contracting, performance monitoring, and billing and payments, we’re helping IHS Nigeria to further scale the use of clean energy across its network — while creating new revenue opportunities and stable demand for mini-grid developers.”
The partnership takes on added strategic weight as MTN Group moves to acquire the remaining stake in IHS Towers. The telecoms group recently secured regulatory approval for the $2.2 billion transaction, which is expected to close in the second half of 2026, although the deal is subject to conditions including a sell-down of up to 30 per cent of the Nigerian business to local investors. Any shift in tower ownership and operational priorities could influence the scale and pace of solarisation efforts, though Odyssey’s existing contractual relationship with IHS Nigeria provides a degree of continuity.
‘A watershed moment’
Industry observers note that Odyssey’s model addresses a critical bottleneck in the clean energy transition. “Distributed solar in emerging markets has reached a watershed moment,” said Andrew Shapiro, founder and managing partner at Broadscale Group. “The demand is there, the economics work, and the remaining constraint to deployment at massive scale is access to capital and procurement infrastructure for installers. That is exactly what Odyssey provides.”
Piyush Mathur, co-founder and managing director of Odyssey, said the conditions for rapid deployment of clean energy had “never been stronger”. “EPCs and distributed energy developers are growing at unprecedented rates, creating an urgent need for the procurement, financing, and technology infrastructure that can enable them to scale,” he said. “That is the gap Odyssey is uniquely filling.”
With fresh capital in hand and a dominant position in both Nigeria’s state-led electrification programmes and its commercial tower solarisation efforts, Odyssey is positioned to deepen its footprint in the world’s fastest-growing distributed energy markets — provided it can navigate the shifting ownership and regulatory landscape of Nigeria’s telecoms infrastructure.