WiNE wizard

Co-founder and business head of Spenomatic Solar Home Solutions Ltd (SSHS) in Kenya, Nikita Surty was presented the Women in New Energy (WiNE) award by SolarQuarter, the largest solar energy sector media portal in Asia-Pacific and Africa. SolarQuarter’s East Africa Leadership Night on April 3, 2024 "unfolded in grandeur, uniting the most distinguished experts from the East Africa solar industry for an evening of celebration and recognition,” noted the website solarquarter.com.

The event at Emara Ole-Sereni in Nairobi showcased "the remarkable achievements of industry professionals and underscored the region’s commitment to advancing solar energy innovation. The evening’s highlight was the recognition of exceptional contributions to the solar energy sector through three prestigious in 2024 award categories: WiNE East Africa Awards honoring the influential role of women in driving innovation; Power 100 East Africa Awards celebrating visionaries steering the region towards a sustainable future; and Grand Masters Awards acknowledging the achievements of industry stalwarts,” noted a report on the SolarQuarter website.

Project undertaken by Spenomatic Solar Home Solutions; inset: Nikita Surty with award

Involved with SSHS since its inception in 2021, 30-year-old Surty mentioned that the start-up is the latest venture under the Spenomatic banner started by her father Berjeesh 25 years ago (see "Generate and germinate,” Parsiana, April 7-20, 2024). Sharing infrastructure and managerial resources with the parent company, in the last financial year SSHS generated a revenue of $ 1.2 million (Rs 10 crore) with a team of nine full-time employees, and an execution team of 33 contract employees. While Nikita is involved in the day-to-day operations of the company, her brother Trishaad serves as the technical head.

"Solar solutions have faced significant price drops over the last five years which has changed payback periods drastically (to nearly a half),” stated Nikita. The savvy business head specified that their immediate target audience comprises residential units that spend a minimum $ 1,200 (one lakh rupees) on electricity annually and having access to grid power that may be weak/unreliable, as also small commercial properties like petrol stations, strip malls (row of establishments along a busy road), stand-alone restaurants bars, office blocks.

While huge EPCs (engineering, procurement and construction companies like their sister organization Spenomatic Solar Ltd) undertake projects averaging 450 kwp (kilowatt peak power), at the other end of the spectrum are small retailers selling solar lights, chargers, lamps, etc. SSHS thus is happy to cater to the "ignored middle market” to offer suitable solutions based on the clients’ specific needs. "Our immediate obtainable market size in Kenya is about $ 600 million (Rs 5,010 crore)... If we were to extend the same market sizing conditions to East Africa, the opportunity…is approximately $ 5.5 bn (Rs 45,921 crore),” she stated when responding by email to Parsiana’s queries. In their drive to "provide affordable and reliable power solutions,” they have partnered with financial institutions willing to fund the projects.

Having decided from a very young age that she would join the family business, Nikita mentioned that even in middle school she would opt for subjects which she believed would enable the business emerge stronger in future. "Papa is an engineer with great business acumen but I remember very clearly a point in our childhood when he had struggled to understand accounting principles,” observed the perceptive daughter who deemed it best to pursue these subjects. Born in India, Nikita migrated with her father and mother Anu to Kenya when she was a year old. After her schooling in Kenya, she went to the University of Nottingham to study finance, accounting and management and subsequently earned a Masters in Strategic Marketing from Imperial College, London. In the interim Spenomatic grew in the energy sector, shifting from oil fired boilers to biomass fired boilers, and subsequently expanding to the solar industry.

When Nikita joined Spenomatic Solar Ltd in 2019, she handled operations, international purchases, logistics and project cash flows for the two-year-old company. "By the end of 2020 we were one of the leading solar solutions providers in the commercial and industrial space. This brought in several inquiries for the residences of those whose commercial properties we had solarized. As this meant a whole new strategy and approach to market as we were essentially shifting from B2B (business to business) to B2C (business to consumer),” Nikita was considered the right fit to take this company forward with her educational background and work experience.

Early this year, Nikita had offered to do the spadework to set up a chapter of the World Zarathushti Chamber of Commerce in Africa. During the Navroz celebrations organized by The Nairobi Parsee Zoroastrian Anjuman last March "we had discussed this with the committee and now we are actively looking into what it would take to set this up fully.” However, since she is in her last trimester of pregnancy (her husband Vidur Dhingra is a management consultant with Open Capital Advisories) "the committee suggested we pause till I am able to take on the load.” She was confident though of soon "engaging with Zoroastrians across the region to start building the chapter. If there are any leads or contacts you may have for Zoroastrians in Africa, please do share,” she requested.