By Providence Ayanfeoluwa

Nigerian energy and climate-tech startup, PowerLabs, has announced a successful close of its pre-seed funding led by Breega, with participation from Catalyst Fund, Mercy Corps Ventures, and Kaleo Ventures, to expand its platform into Nigeria’s most energy-intensive sectors, providing hospitals and industrial hubs with the intelligent, automated control required to ensure continuous power and operational resilience.

The investment will accelerate the rollout of Pai Enterprise, its flagship AI-enabled energy orchestration platform, across Nigeria’s commercial and industrial enterprises, while laying the foundation for expansion into key West African markets.

Nigeria’s manufacturing sector spent N1.11 trillion on alternative energy sources in 2024, a 42 percent increase from the previous year, underscoring the urgent need for resilient solutions.

In a statement, Chief Executive and Co-Founder of PowerLabs, Tobechukwu Arinze, said that they are building the intelligence layer that proves distributed energy can operate as a unified source, offering flexibility, cost efficiency, carbon neutrality, and redundancy, saying: “Distributed energy resources are often seen as fragmented and chaotic. At PowerLabs, we believe decentralization doesn’t have to mean disorder.”

Commenting on the investment, Tosin Faniro-Dada, Partner at Breega, said: “We backed PowerLabs at the pre-seed stage because we believe intelligent orchestration will be essential to solving Africa’s energy reliability challenge. The team is building the software and hardware layer that enables businesses to coordinate multiple distributed energy sources in real time.”

Olúwátóyìn Emmanuel-Olúbákè, Chief Investment Officer at Catalyst Fund, added: “Globally, more and more businesses operate in complex energy environments where multiple sources must work together. PowerLabs is starting in Africa to build the intelligence to orchestrate these systems seamlessly without sacrificing cost, reliability, or carbon footprint.”

With this funding, PowerLabs said it is poised to demonstrate that the era of traditional energy management is over, and that personalized, decentralized, and intelligent systems are the future of Africa’s energy landscape.

The impact is expected to be felt across Nigeria’s most critical sectors, hospitals, for instance, will benefit from intelligent monitoring across vital circuits, ensuring uninterrupted care in intensive units and operating theatres.

Factories will gain actionable intelligence to reduce inefficiencies and cut costs, while data centres and retail outlets will be able to optimize usage, reduce emissions, and improve operational resilience.

The startup plans to deploy the new capital to accelerate the rollout of Pai Enterprise, enhance its predictive load-management algorithms, and broaden integration with distributed energy assets ranging from rooftop solar and battery storage systems to traditional grid infrastructure.

The funding round brings together a mix of global and Africa-focused investors with deep commitment to climate-tech.

Breega, which invests in digital and deep tech companies across Europe and Africa, led the round. Mercy Corps Ventures, Catalyst Fund, and Kaleo Ventures also participated, each bringing expertise in scaling innovation in emerging markets and frontier economies.