A Nigerian startup is turning sunlight into a business advantage for hundreds of small and medium-sized enterprises.
Earthbond, founded by Chidalu Onyenso in 2023, is helping businesses move away from costly diesel-powered generation by combining solar technology with financing, installation and maintenance. What began as an attempt to find a practical answer to one of the biggest costs facing Nigerian SMEs has grown into a company that has worked with more than 400 businesses and helped replace more than 300,000 litres of fossil fuel.
The company financed its first project in 2024. Two years later, Earthbond is financially self-sustaining, with 14 full-time employees and a network of 75 installers across the Lagos region.
One of its projects was a medical diagnostic laboratory in Lagos, where solar power cut monthly energy costs by as much as 40 percent. The savings did more than improve the laboratory’s finances as patients received test results without delays linked to power outages, while the business was able to use some of the money saved to hire more employees.
That project captures the idea behind Earthbond: giving businesses access to dependable and more affordable power can also create room for them to employ, invest and expand.
The idea grew from a question Onyenso had carried since childhood.
She grew up in the United States while her father ran health care businesses in both the US and Nigeria. Watching the businesses operate in two different markets made her wonder why expansion seemed easier in one than the other.
“I always wondered, ‘What makes it so easy for his businesses in the US to grow that doesn’t apply in Nigeria?’” she says.
Harvard Business School gave her an opportunity to investigate that question.
During a Rock Summer Fellowship between her MBA years, Onyenso travelled to Lagos and spoke with business owners about the costs affecting their companies. Diesel emerged as a major concern. At the time, the city’s power grid met less than 20 percent of energy demand, leaving many businesses dependent on generators.
The challenge was not simply the price of fuel. Many SMEs also struggled to obtain the financing needed to move to solar.
Onyenso found that solar providers had largely overlooked SMEs, while lenders had not fully embraced them as a viable market.
“No one wanted to fund SMEs as a charity case, and no one wanted to fund them as an economic contributor,” she says.
The market was beginning to change. Diesel costs were rising, solar panels were becoming less expensive, and Nigeria’s credit infrastructure had matured enough for lenders to better understand the creditworthiness of their customers.
Those changes created an opening for a business built around both energy and finance.
With support from a Navab Social Impact Fellowship from the Harvard Innovation Labs, Onyenso developed the idea that became Earthbond.
The company initially operated as a broker, connecting business owners with existing credit products and solar solutions. It soon took on a larger responsibility, helping businesses assess their energy requirements, secure financing, arrange installation and maintain their systems.
For Earthbond, the quality of the final installation matters as much as securing the loan. A business needs a solar system that can deliver the expected savings if it is going to repay its financing and gain from the investment.
The Lagos diagnostic laboratory offered a clear example of what that model could deliver. Lower energy costs strengthened the business, dependable power helped prevent delays in medical testing, and the resulting savings contributed to additional employment.
The company is now looking beyond individual installations. Onyenso describes Earthbond’s next stage as becoming “an ecosystem enabler”, with the aim of strengthening the solar energy sector and supporting the efforts of other players in the industry.
“We’re asking: How do we bolster everyone's efforts?” she says.
From an idea developed at Harvard to a company serving hundreds of Nigerian businesses, Earthbond is building around a straightforward proposition: when SMEs can spend less keeping their operations powered, they have more room to put their money and energy into the work that keeps their businesses moving.
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