Actis and Yellow Door Energy: How a Dubai Solar Platform Changed Hands in 2022

In July 2022 the investor Actis announced it had agreed to acquire a controlling stake in Yellow Door Energy, a Dubai-based commercial and industrial (C&I) solar company, according to Africa Private Equity News. The price was not disclosed. This article reports what is documented about that deal and the company.

The company

Yellow Door Energy was founded in 2015, and Jeremy Crane is identified as its founder and chief executive. It builds and finances solar systems for businesses so they do not have to pay the equipment cost up front, a model it describes on its website. Reported customers include Nestlé, Majid Al Futtaim, DHL, Mondelēz and Unilever.

The Actis deal

Actis announced on 29 July 2022 that it had signed documents to acquire a controlling stake. At the time Yellow Door Energy was described as the leading distributed C&I solar platform in the Middle East and Africa, with about 200 MW of secured production capacity. Closing depended on regulatory approvals. The deal was funded through Actis’s Energy 5 Fund, according to White & Case, which advised the company.

The $400 million raise

Enterprise reported in October 2022 that Yellow Door Energy had raised $400 million in equity. The funding came substantially from Actis, with existing shareholders International Finance Corporation, Mitsui and APICORP also increasing their commitments.

Capacity figures

Capacity numbers differ between sources and dates. One Actis statement gave about 106 MW in operation and 104 MW awarded and under construction. These are figures from 2022 and should not be read as current. For up-to-date numbers, see the company’s own announcements.

What we could not confirm

We could not find a source for individual 2026 projects or operating statistics, so we do not report them.