Omnivat
Containerised renewable energy, water treatment, and connectivity.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| investor | €0.0 | round | |
* | $70.0k | Grant | |
| Total Funding | 000k | ||
Omnivat Tech is a pan-African renewable energy technology company developing solutions to address energy poverty and water scarcity in sub-Saharan Africa. The company was co-founded by a team of engineers, including Randy Kabuya, Deney van Rooyen, George Sechu, and Sifiso Mvulane. The founding team represents various countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Tanzania, and possesses combined experience in engineering, project execution, and sustainable development.
Omnivat's core product is a containerised, smart microgrid system housed in a 6-meter recycled shipping container. This pre-packaged power plant combines solar PV panels (30 kWp), second-life electric vehicle batteries, and a hybrid energy storage system that uses both batteries and hydrogen. The system is designed to generate 60 kWh of green baseload power and can store energy for three days. A key feature is the integration of productive-use subsystems, including a reverse osmosis and ozone water treatment system, refrigeration, and Wi-Fi connectivity to support remote communities. To manage these systems in remote locations, Omnivat developed its own software for remote monitoring, maintenance, control, and predictive analytics on solar yield, which is supplemented with virtual reality support to bridge technical skill gaps.
The business model involves manufacturing, selling, and leasing these hardware and software solutions. Omnivat targets a range of public and private sector clients, including healthcare facilities, mining operations, hospitality businesses, and entire communities, addressing needs for both primary power and backup where grids are unreliable. The company gained significant recognition as the runner-up in the Milken-Motsepe Prize in Green Energy, securing $250,000 (R4.5 million) in funding to advance its innovation and deploy pilot plants. Following this, Omnivat planned to roll out three in-field pilot systems in South Africa to test various use cases.
Keywords: renewable energy, microgrids, green hydrogen, water treatment, energy storage, sub-Saharan Africa, containerised power, solar PV, off-grid solutions, remote monitoring, sustainable development, clean energy, IoT, virtual reality support, community power, backup power, productive use of energy, rural electrification, clean water, pan-African