Intelligence Infrastructure for Africa's Energy Grid
Asoba builds the data and AI infrastructure that makes distributed renewable energy readable, tradeable, and insurable at scale. We unify fragmented OEM data into open standards, layer commercial intelligence on top, and give operators, regulators, and investors the clarity to act.
The Problem
Africa's Energy Data is Unreadable at Scale
Distributed solar has scaled from isolated rooftop installations to multi-gigawatt capacity across Southern Africa. But the data layer hasn't kept up. Every OEM — Huawei FusionSolar, SolarEdge, SMA Sunny Portal, Sungrow iSolarCloud — locks generation data into proprietary formats, dashboards, and APIs that don't talk to each other.
The result: no one can see the full picture. Not the asset owner managing a portfolio across three inverter brands. Not the regulator trying to verify compliance across hundreds of licensed IPPs. Not the insurer trying to underwrite performance guarantees. Not the trader trying to forecast aggregate supply into a new wholesale market.
- Grid instability from unforecasted distributed generation at scale
- Insurance and performance guarantee failures from unmeasurable baselines
- Capital bottlenecks from inability to demonstrate bankable track records
- Settlement and trading gaps as wholesale markets open without standardized data feeds
The Intervention
Three Layers of Intelligence Infrastructure
Open Protocol
ODSE
The open standard for energy asset data interchange. Apache-licensed, it standardizes inverter telemetry across manufacturers into a single schema. Install with pip install odse and start normalizing data from any OEM in minutes.
Commercial SaaS
eSUMS
The commercial O&M intelligence platform built on ODSE. Portfolio monitoring, AI-driven fault detection, day-ahead forecasting, yield optimization, and automated regulatory reporting — delivered as a multi-tenant SaaS dashboard.
AI Research Layer
Nehanda & Zorora
Nehanda is a 7-billion parameter domain-specific language model trained on energy regulation, tariff structures, and grid operations. Zorora is the RAG-based research tool that makes Nehanda accessible — deep research, satellite imaging, regulatory intelligence.
Market Timing
The Wholesale Market Demands a Data Layer
Southern Africa's electricity markets are transitioning from vertically integrated monopolies to competitive wholesale trading. South Africa's SAWEM (South African Wholesale Electricity Market) is being designed alongside Independent Transmission Operator legislation. Zimbabwe has issued over 100 IPP generation licenses through ZERA with more pending. The Southern African Power Pool interconnects 16 member utilities across 12 countries.
Every one of these transitions requires something that doesn't exist yet: a standardized, machine-readable data layer that works across OEM boundaries. Without it, forecasting is guesswork, settlement is manual, and regulatory oversight is impossible at the scale the market is heading toward.
- SAETA's 2024 report identifies data standardization as a prerequisite for wholesale market readiness
- ZERA has licensed 100+ IPPs but lacks unified monitoring across heterogeneous OEM platforms
- Retail supply liberalization in South Africa will fragment generation data further without an interchange standard
- SAPP's cross-border trading requires harmonized generation data across member state boundaries
Strategy
Platform Formation, Not Software Sales
Asoba's strategy mirrors the pattern of successful infrastructure platforms: give away the protocol, monetize the intelligence layer. ODSE is free and open source (Apache 2.0 / CC-BY-SA). It reduces the cost of adoption to zero. Every installation that standardizes on ODSE becomes a potential customer for eSUMS — the commercial platform that turns raw standardized data into actionable intelligence.
The commercial model scales across three tiers: Starter ($10/mo) for API access and notebooks, Reports ($50/mo) for daily intelligence emails, and Platform ($250/mo) for the full dashboard with anomaly detection and forecasting. Enterprise engagements — managed O&M partnerships through LTM Energy — layer on-ground execution, dispatch, and revenue-share models.
Institutional credibility is built through open-source governance (BDFL model), published research (Zenodo, IEEE), and partnerships with regulators, utilities, and sustainability organizations. This isn't a move-fast-and-break-things approach — it's infrastructure that energy markets need to trust before they adopt.
Operations
Cape Town HQ, Southern Africa Focus
Asoba is headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa, with operations across the SAPP region including South Africa and Zimbabwe. Our partnerships span energy operators, sustainability organizations, and technology providers who share our conviction that distributed energy needs an intelligence layer.
Meet Our Team
The visionaries and operators building Africa's energy intelligence infrastructure.
Shingai Samudzi
Founder & CEO
Driving AI-driven forecasting and dispatch optimization solutions for electricity wheeling, grid operations, and energy trading. Previously AI product development at Google and commercial solar strategy at Lumen Energy, with extensive experience at the intersection of policy, data science, and go to market strategy. Carnegie Mellon graduate with background in decision science and international relations.
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Gertie Ogojiaku
Co-Founder & COO
Leading company-wide operational strategy and execution for Asoba's AI-driven energy platform. Previously served as Head of Operations and Project Engineer at New Earth Energy, managing PV installations and SSEG applications. Chemical Engineering graduate from University of the Witwatersrand with expertise in renewable energy project management.
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Chiwoneso Mashapure
Marketing Lead
Leading marketing strategy and brand development for Asoba's energy intelligence platform. Focused on communicating the value of distributed AI infrastructure to energy stakeholders across Africa. Building awareness and adoption of our solutions in the renewable energy sector.
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Ann Buenvenida
Administrative Lead
Managing administrative operations and supporting the team's day-to-day functions. Ensuring smooth operations across all departments and maintaining the organizational infrastructure that enables our mission of energy independence across Africa.
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