Farmers in Vietnam
This Earth Day, Sarona is highlighting three companies from our active portfolio in Vietnam, India, and West Africa where climate action is already under way. What these three companies share is not a sector or a strategy. It is a clear focus on building commercially viable responses to real environmental challenges.
Through Sarona’s private equity investments in Fund Managers in emerging markets, the underlying companies received long-term growth capital to expand its national reach and embed ESG practices into its operations.
“The commercial case for investing in climate solutions and companies improving their environmental practices is already strong. These businesses are reducing costs, responding to clear market demand, and operating in a regulatory environment that is only moving in one direction. Earth Day is a useful occasion to step back and recognize how much is already happening. And to recommit to the work of financing more of it.” Emre Karabekirogullari, Director of Investments, Sarona
HUSK: Turning Agricultural Waste into Biochar-Based Fertilizers
HUSK employees at a facility
Vietnam is the world’s fifth largest rice producer, generating around 6 million tons of leftover rice husk each year after milling. Traditionally, that waste was burned in fields or dumped in rivers – a significant source of air pollution and short-lived climate pollutants. HUSK, a women-founded company established in 2017 and part of the Mekong IV portfolio, saw an opportunity where others saw a disposal problem.
HUSK’s model addresses two critical challenges in emerging markets: Helping farmers to use less harmful chemicals while building climate resilience and still have a positive return on investment from the first cycle, while also managing agricultural waste. The company converts rice husks into biochar-based fertilizers using a process that permanently sequesters carbon in the soil. The final product has a low hydrogen-to-organic carbon ratio, which ensures long-term carbon stability and meets the strict certification criteria of the Global Biochar C-Sink standard by Carbon Standards International (CSI). The certification process ensures the highest standards of transparency and permanence in carbon sequestration. Biochar improves soil fertility, water retention, nutrient uptake efficiency, reduces dependence on synthetic inputs, and builds long-term fertility in degraded agricultural land.
Across 250 farm trials, HUSK’s products delivered yield increases of 30%. In 2024 alone, the company sold over 250,000 bags of biochar-based fertilizer. The company aims to reach at least 10,000 farmers by 2030. Its current workforce of 60 includes active outreach teams embedded in farming communities.
HUSK scaled operations into Cambodia, where its first installation operates continuous-flow pyrolysis units within an active rice mill – producing fertilizer and sequestering carbon simultaneously. The first Vietnamese plant will be operational by Q3 2026, doubling it’s current capacity to processing 14,000 tons of agricultural waste per year, permanently sequestering approximately 6,600 tonnes of CO₂ annually. Carbon removal credit revenues are helping the model as they subsidize production costs and make the fertilizers accessible to smallholder farmers who could not otherwise afford them.
HUSK has won multiple awards and was named a winner of the Bayer Foundation Women Entrepreneurs Award 2025, selected from over 1,700 applicants across Asia Pacific, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East.
Electra EV: Driving Cleaner Mobility in India
Electra EV fleet
India’s commercial transport sector – three-wheelers, buses, and off-highway vehicles – runs largely on diesel and compressed natural gas. The transition to electric powertrains is one of the most direct levers available for reducing urban air pollution and national transport emissions at scale.
Electra EV, part of the GEF Capital SAGF Fund II portfolio, is a leading provider of electric powertrain solutions supplying battery packs, power electronics, and drivetrains to automotive OEMs across India. Its products span three-wheelers, four-wheelers, buses, and off-highway equipment, with manufacturing in Pune and Coimbatore and service support across more than 120 cities nationwide.
In 2024, Electra EV supplied 13,000 EV powertrains, delivering an estimated 12,000 tonnes of avoided CO₂ emissions annually. End users save between USD 1,100 and 1,800 (INR 90,000–1,50,000) per vehicle per year compared with CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) and diesel vehicles, making clean mobility commercially viable at scale.
A key driver of operational efficiency was the consolidation of all manufacturing processes into a single integrated facility in 2024 – eliminating the need to transport materials between sites, reducing fuel consumption and logistical inefficiencies, and delivering a 25% reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions equivalent to approximately 191 tonnes of CO₂ annually. The adoption of energy-efficient technologies, including regenerative chargers and optimized air conditioning systems, contributed to an additional 8% year-on-year reduction in overall operational emissions.
The company is also working to reduce Scope 3 emissions, which currently account for over 95% of its total footprint, primarily through purchased goods and services. It is enhancing supplier engagement, promoting low-carbon procurement, and building circular economy practices into its battery waste management: in 2024, Electra EV recycled 144 MT of battery waste, recovering copper, aluminium, iron, and black mass through closed-loop partnerships with certified recyclers.
The workforce grew from 125 employees in 2022 to 329 in 2024, with over 170 of those jobs created in smaller towns. Female workforce representation rose from 2% to 14% over the investment period, and the company has committed to meeting 2X Challenge criteria by 2030.
Electra EV illustrates that the clean energy transition is often more commercially attractive than the fossil fuel status quo – cheaper to operate and fast to scale.
Azalaï Hotels: Building an Energy-Efficient Hotel Portfolio Across West Africa
One of the company’s hotels in Mauritania
Progress on climate does not always come from big new technologies. Sometimes it comes from consistent, practical steps: an energy audit, better consumption monitoring, or solar panels installed on a hotel roof. For companies with limited capital, especially in markets where financing is expensive, steady, incremental progress is the strategy.
Azalaï Hotels operates properties across West African countries including Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Senegal, positioned in prime capital city locations and serving business and leisure travelers alike. These are energy-intensive assets operating around the clock, often in environments where grid reliability is inconsistent, and diesel generation remains a necessary backup.
In this context, improving energy efficiency is both a cost imperative and an operational one.
The group supports more than 4,000 direct and indirect jobs across the sub-region.
In recent years, Azalaï has moved toward a more structured approach to energy management. The appointment of a Group-level Energy Engineer signals that energy is no longer managed reactively but is becoming embedded in how the business is run. Across the portfolio, the company has introduced practical measures that reduce consumption without disrupting operations: LED lighting has replaced more energy-intensive systems, and room key card controls help eliminate electricity use in unoccupied rooms. The team is also evaluating additional opportunities, including heat recovery technologies and solar thermal systems for water heating.
Alongside these operational improvements, Azalaï is investing in renewable energy generation. In 2024, the company commissioned a 460 kWp grid-tied solar PV system at its flagship hotel in Bamako, designed for self-consumption. The system now produces approximately 710,000 kWh of electricity per year—covering more than 20% of the hotel’s electricity needs—reducing reliance on both the grid and diesel generators and contributing to more stable operations in a highly volatile energy environment. The installation features SMA Sunny Tripower Core2 inverters and includes real-time online monitoring to track system performance. Beyond the direct operational benefit, it serves as a working model for replication across the broader portfolio.
As Kadidia Diarra, Energy & HSSE Project Manager at Azalaï Group, puts it:
“The preservation of the environment is a major priority for our company. We aim to make our hotel units more sustainable and environmentally friendly. This approach offers a dual benefit: improving our economic performance while contributing to the preservation of our one and only planet, Earth.”
Early data shows a noticeable reduction in electricity spending. The Bamako solar system helps avoid more than 500 tonnes of CO₂ emissions annually and has produced a measurable reduction in electricity costs. Energy audits are also part of this shift: a planned audit at the Abidjan property, aligned with local regulatory requirements, will provide a more granular view of consumption patterns and further efficiency opportunities. Across the group, energy projects are now evaluated as part of regular budgeting and planning cycles, with clear attention to return on investment and available resources. What began as a set of operational improvements is developing into a portfolio-wide approach to managing energy risk and cost.
What This Means for Impact Investors
First, the commercial case is real. Energy efficiency reduces operating costs. Clean mobility lowers total cost of ownership. Regenerative agriculture improves yields. These are the core value proposition of each business.
Second, impact and financial returns are increasingly aligned. The companies described here are not trading performance for purpose. They are competitive, growing businesses in high-demand sectors.
Third, measurement matters. From energy monitoring in hotels to carbon accounting and gender inclusion metrics, these companies are building the data infrastructure needed to manage and scale impact and to remain accountable to investors.
Fourth, capital remains a binding constraint. Many of these businesses operate in markets where long-term, patient financing is scarce. This is where impact investors can provide the greatest additionality, not just funding, but signaling, credibility, and the kind of long-term partnership that allows companies to invest in systems as well as growth.
The argument for directing more private capital toward climate solutions in emerging markets has never been stronger. The commercial evidence is there. The investable companies exist. The frameworks for measuring and verifying impact are maturing. What is needed now is more capital willing to go where the opportunity, and the need is greatest.
