Acumen invests in Instollar to power solar jobs and energy access in Nigeria
From Acumen Angel to Acumen investee, Instollar is building the workforce powering Nigeria’s solar transition.
- Blog
- Renewable energy
- West Africa
Acumen has invested in Instollar, a Nigerian digital marketplace that connects solar companies with a growing pool of trained, on-demand gig workers for flexible deployment on projects. By reducing the cost and complexity of accessing trained workers, Instollar helps clean energy companies scale faster while unlocking income opportunities for youth, women, and underserved communities.
The investment marks a milestone in Acumen’s broader model for supporting early-stage entrepreneurs. Instollar’s co-founder and CEO, Chinwe Udo-Davis, was selected as a 2024 West Africa Acumen Fellow. A year later, she became an Acumen Angels awardee, a program that provides catalytic funding to promising social entrepreneurs. Now, Acumen is investing in her company as it begins to scale, illustrating how early support can help mission-driven founders build ventures that attract long-term capital.
“This investment from Acumen affirms our belief that access to clean energy depends not just on technology, but on people. With Acumen’s support, we can expand economic opportunity while accelerating the clean energy transition across Africa.”
Chinwe Udo-Davis, CEO of Instollar
Nigeria faces a dual challenge: widespread youth unemployment and persistent energy poverty. More than half of the country’s young people are unemployed or underemployed, while more than 100 million Nigerians lack reliable electricity. At the same time, the solar sector is expanding rapidly as households and businesses turn to distributed energy solutions. Yet many solar companies struggle to scale because they cannot easily find trained technicians to deploy projects across the country.
Instollar addresses this bottleneck by building a technology-enabled workforce marketplace for the solar industry. Think of it like Uber for clean energy services. Through its digital platform, solar companies can quickly find and deploy vetted technicians for installation, maintenance, and training services based on location, skill, and availability. The platform also enables real-time project tracking and automated payment workflows, bringing transparency and efficiency to a sector where informal labor networks often slow deployment.
Since launching in 2023, Instollar has built a network of more than 1,400 solar technicians across all 36 Nigerian states and facilitated over 2,000 installations for clients including ENGIE, BBOXX, NXT Grid, and Acumen investee Koolboks. By linking skilled workers with growing demand for solar installations, the company helps young Nigerians access reliable income opportunities while enabling energy providers to scale their operations.
“Instollar exemplifies Acumen’s belief that innovative, technology-enabled models can drive meaningful social impact while building commercially viable businesses. By creating a structured pathway for Nigeria’s skilled youth to access dignified employment in the growing solar sector, Instollar addresses both the country’s unemployment challenge and its need for clean energy deployment.”
Babatunde Usman, Acumen West Africa Investment Manager
Acumen’s investment, made through the Challenge Fund for Youth Employment (CFYE), will help Instollar grow its technician network, expand its client base, and strengthen its platform technology. The company also plans to establish a physical training center to improve technician certification and expand training opportunities. The company’s InstallHER initiative seeks to train 10,000 African women as certified solar technicians by 2030.
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