Jeff Schnurr has always been interested in giving back. In high school he got involved in a program that planted trees in Canada. That experience inspired him to start a tree planting project in Tanzania that he ran for 10 years and that ultimately resulted in 6.5 million new trees. It was as part of the project that Schnurr got the inspiration for his next business. “Of course everyone I met in Tanzania thought trees were great, but the more pressing issue for them was finding a place where they could charge their phone,” recalls Schnurr.
Approximately 600 million people live without electricity across Sub Saharan Africa. “When the sun goes down, the day is over,” says Schnurr. “Human productivity is directly correlated to energy. When there’s no electricity, you can’t work, study, or communicate with the people around you after dark. Plus, it’s just not safe.”
It was Schnurr’s quest to address this issue that led to his founding Jaza Energy in 2017. Headquartered in Nova Scotia, Jaza provides a distributed network of charging stations for batteries that power entire homes and communities. While pitching his business to a group of investors in Toronto, Schnurr heard about Active Impact Investments, Canada’s largest climate tech seed fund, and thought they sounded like a good match for what he was hoping to achieve. He wound up tracking down Mike Winterfield, the firm’s Founder and Managing Partner, and pitching to him on what he was building.
While Active Impact was interested, the timing wasn’t right. Nevertheless, they stayed in touch and in November 2019 decided to invest in the business. “Jeff was clearly doing something very novel,” says Winterfield. “While others were building rooftop solar solutions in Africa, the reality is that it was far too expensive for most people. Jeff’s community model put shared solar charging stations in central locations where hundreds of dead batteries could continuously be swapped for charged ones. That changed the economics to the point where it was cheaper for people to use Jeff’s solution than to burn kerosene. It’s a great idea that solves a big problem for a massive market.”
“Active-Ating” Jaza With Capital and Expertise
Active Impact was one of the first VCs to back Jaza Energy and was very hands-on from the beginning. “We met every two weeks for six years and sometimes on a weekly or even a daily basis,” says Winterfield. “Over the years, we helped Jeff raise additional capital and think through and carry out various pricing strategies. We tried to be there for him and help out in any way we could.”
“One of the things I like most about Active Impact is that they are entrepreneurs too,” says Schnurr. “They were building their business while we were trying to build ours, so we grew up together through the process.” Winterfield and Schnurr were always very aligned, ensuring that they remained focused on both helping people and serving shareholders. The Active Impact team also played an important part in recruiting talent to Jaza and helping Schnurr build out his executive team.
“They really care,” says Schnurr. “They think deeply about how they can support companies, whether that’s making introductions to the right people or rolling up their sleeves to help drive the business forward.”
Everyone’s hard work paid off. Over the years Jaza went from powering 15,000 people to 150,000. To date they have done more than 4 million battery swaps, providing much needed electricity while also resulting in a massive reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The company also expanded into West Africa, increased its employee headcount from 50 to over 350, and experienced an 8x increase in value.
An Electrifying Exit
Thanks to its fundraising efforts, more investors became interested in Jaza over the years. In 2024, a multi-billion-dollar strategic came forth with an offer to take a stake in the business that would effectively buy out the majority of the existing investors.
“It was a good outcome for everyone,” says Winterfield. “We got just shy of 5x cash on cash for our LPs, while Jeff got a new partner that is aligned with his vision and that has the capital to help accelerate Jaza’s growth. Over the six years we were partnered, we established 100 charging hubs. With this new partner, Jaza will be able to add that every month.” Active Impact was ultimately awarded the VC Regional Impact Award, Atlantic Canada, for its work with Jaza.
Schnurr is also very happy with the way things played out. “When you take capital as an entrepreneur, the expectation is that you’re going to return it and then some,” he says. “It’s great to be able to do that for early believers in the company, while still being in a position to grow the business for years to come. Mike took a real chance on us when most other investors wouldn’t. I’m grateful for that and for his incredible support over the years.”
