Solon Capital Partners

Solon relies on a business-creation model rather than acquiring existing companies. Its three verticals — Nature Based Solutions, Education & Sport, and Sustainable Communities — are populated with subsidiaries the firm co-founded or incubated internally. For example, West Africa Blue was launched as a dedicated carbon-projects vehicle, and Flash Vehicles developed Sierra Leone’s first ride-hailing platform. This approach reduces reliance on competitive auctions and allows Solon to set governance from inception.

Solon is a private equity firm, not a family office. The three founders — David Dobrowolski, John Stelzer, and Shaun Ramanat — originated the firm with their own operational and investment backgrounds, not inherited wealth. It raises external capital for its portfolio companies and includes independent investment committee members such as Norfund's Bernt Brun and former OPIC CEO Elizabeth Littlefield.

Two of Solon's founders, David Dobrowolski and Yasser Toor, previously worked for the Tony Blair Africa Governance Initiative (now the Tony Blair Institute) in Sierra Leone. They served in the Office of the President, where they led private sector development projects. That experience provided the operational template for Solon’s hands-on incubation model, but the firm has no ongoing institutional or financial tie to the Institute.

Solon does not publish a formal exclusion list, but its disclosed portfolios concentrate entirely on climate and community outcomes — carbon projects, affordable education, sustainable real estate, and mobility. The firm has no known investments in extractive industries, defense, tobacco, or heavy manufacturing. The ESG function, led by Dr. Tiwalade Adeniyi, screens substantially against development-finance risk frameworks.

Solon does not market itself as a fund-of-funds and its disclosed architecture shows only direct holdings in operating platforms. The firm creates and scales its own subsidiaries, such as Terra Nova Solutions and HC Capital Properties, rather than committing capital to third-party funds. External co-investment occurs at the subsidiary level — for instance, West Africa Blue has sector-specialist partners integrated into its governance.

Co-founder John Stelzer chairs the investment committee. The committee includes Elizabeth Littlefield, former CEO of US DFC, who chairs the board of M-KOPA; Bernt Brun of Norfund, who directs PE and VC investments in fragile states; and Yasser Toor, previously a general partner at TSG Consumer Partners and now Head of Food Security Investments at DFC. The committee blends private sector and development-finance governance.

Solon embedded ESG governance inside the partnership through Partner Arthur Rojas and Head of ESG Dr. Tiwalade Adeniyi. The Solon Foundation handles corporate social responsibility independently, while each portfolio company maintains its own ESG reporting. West Africa Blue and Rising Academy Network, for example, track carbon credits and learning outcomes respectively on standalone platforms, not consolidated at the holding level.