By Vivian Warby
Passion.
A word that aptly describes Matteo Brambilla.
Red hot passion.
Red Rocket passion.
The type of passion he brings to any boardroom he enters and the same passion which has seen him and his team turn Red Rocket energy, of which he is CEO, into Africa’s top renewable energy business.
Under Brambilla’s guidance, Red Rocket, born out of the management buy-out of Building Energy and supported by EVOII Fund managed by Inspired Evolution, has been on an upward trajectory characterised by consecutive wins in each of the bid rounds of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers’ Procurement Programme.
The company has also invested an estimated $1 billion (R18bn) in renewable-energy projects across Africa and the group has raised $160 million from investors last year. It is constructing another 750 megawatts of projects to add to the portfolio.
While the company has grown into a significant player in the continent’s renewable energy market, consistently holding its own against large multinationals, it was his first win on African soil that Brambilla remembers in detail and with much emotion.
The year was 2011, and the bid in Joburg was a do-or-die affair for the business he was running as funds were drying up. “I came on my own to do the bid, and when I was done, I called my partners and said there was, sadly, no way we could win it, and I got on a plane to go back to Italy.”
It was when he turned on his phone when landing in Amsterdam that he saw the news. The group had been awarded the acquisition of the first South African PV project (81MW, Kathu), in Round 1 REIPPP Programme.
Brambilla gets emotional about that moment. “I was on that plane going back to tell my family I had nothing, that our lives were going to change for the worse but now, instead, I was returning home to say we made it and we were going to Africa.
“That win saved the company, the business, my job and my family. People have the American dream, for me – a man from Milan, Italy – it soon became the African dream.
“Doing business in Africa has been a phenomenal experience, there are so many opportunities here.”
Fast forward just over 12 years and earlier this year Brambilla was awarded the Business Person of the Year, 2024, by the Italian-SA Chamber of Trade and Industries. In his speech it was South Africa he thanked for giving him the opportunity to realise his professional dreams.
The journey to this point began in earnest in July 2012 when the South African office of Building Energy was opened in Cape Town.
“We chose Cape Town as it was the easiest place for my family to integrate into, but in that first year, I must have done over 40 trips to Joburg.
“I was warned that doing business in South Africa was difficult. But I had worked for four years in Sicily before … I was ready for it all.”
In November that year, Kathu reached financial close, R3.4 billion, and commenced the 21-month construction period.
“We were seen as mavericks, renegades, cowboys. Today, we are a more sophisticated company and have grown from a handful of employees to over 350.”
The company certainly has come a long way from the first thought of it in 2005 while Brambilla was working as CFO in the largest group of car dealerships in Italy. “I had a sense the industry (automobile) was dying and I started to investigate what would be the next big thing, and renewable energy kept coming up.”
It was also in 2005 that talks began globally in earnest around work to reduce CO2 emissions.
Brambilla, who has a masters in law, economy and organisational behaviour, pivoted to the renewable energy industry in Italy and became a CFO for a wind developer there.
But after a few years, the Italian government began to put constraints on the industry.
“It became impossible to survive there, so I started looking abroad at where there was a need.
“I knew whichever country I chose, I would have to move to with my family, so there were some important considerations: Could I watch some good rugby there?” he says half-jokingly about his decision to look at South Africa and Africa as a whole.
Brambilla, who could have chosen a career as a rugby player or a musician, says that ultimately, he is happy with the choice he made.
After the initial success that Business Energy enjoyed in Africa, Brambilla found himself again in a company that was going through a dark patch.
“It was clear we had to change our business to a fully integrated one that covered all aspects, including development, construction, asset management and so on. We worked flat out to see what could work.
“In 2018, Red Rocket was born out of Business Energy and a management buy-out. It took some time. In 2016, we were 15 people. Today, we are 350 people, Goldman Sachs Group is our accounting firm and we have some big projects under our belt and some important investors.”
The South African independent power provider has signed a mandate with Goldman Sachs to “explore various strategic options aimed at supporting the growth, investment, and development of our business and projects in the pipeline. As part of this process, a range of possibilities to enhance the long-term value of Red Rocket will be considered”.
Brambilla says he loves what he does and understands the importance of change, including bringing in new investors to grow the business further.
In true Italian style, Brambilla, fuelled by strong espresso – at least four cups in our short interview – turns to the world he wants his four children, aged from 18 months to 23 years, to find themselves in, in 50 years.
He echoes Red Rocket’s dream to live in a world moved by the energy nature creates, so there can be a cleaner, sustainable energy future for Africa.
“I won’t be here in 50 years, but I have a dream that there won’t be any more coal being used. That renewable energy will be the only energy used, that there will only be electric cars, that there will be new tech that even green hydrogen would have done its day and no longer be here and that the world will be one that my children will be happy to leave for their children.”
I walk away from Brambilla feeling like I’ve been on a journey of a 1 000 years in two hours. I’ve relooked at my notes many times and it’s not one thing he said but the energy of his delivery.
A Mediterranean man who hugs, cries, laughs, plays the bass, smiles, tells jokes and has a burning desire to help save the world for his children and his children’s children in the way he knows how, I wave goodbye from a distance as he jumps on stage to address his team.
He catches my eye and waves goodbye.
I have a feeling that Red Rocket’s Brambrilla – who seems to have already made – has a lot he’s still going to deliver.
Watch this space.
* Vivian Warby is business property and environment writer and executive editor. vivian.warby@inl.co.za
* This article first appeared in The Weekend Argus.