The world’s largest off-grid solar firm earns the No. 4 spot in the Social Good category on Fast Company’s annual ranking.

In 2017, Sun King was installing around 10,000 solar kits a month. Today, that number is 350,000 — and rising. On Tuesday, US business magazine Fast Company recognised the pace and ambition of that growth by naming Sun King No. 4 in the Social Good category on its World’s Most Innovative Companies list for 2026, placing the company alongside Google, Nvidia, Adidas and Walmart.

The Social Good category honours companies whose innovations are principally designed to benefit society — addressing issues such as poverty, access to education, healthcare, and clean energy. Sun King’s inclusion reflects its central mission: powering access to brighter lives. 

The ranking reflects a period of significant expansion. Sun King has spent the past 18 months pushing well beyond the solar lanterns and solar home systems that first made its name. Sun King now offers solar inverter systems from under one kilowatt to 30 kilowatts, enough to power a refrigerator, a business, or an entire school.

In January 2026, Sun King launched the HomePlus Max, its most powerful solar home system to date, capable of running laptops and televisions. And in October 2025, Sun King opened its first large-scale assembly facility in Kiambu County, Kenya, creating local manufacturing jobs and reducing dependence on imported hardware.

“Across Africa and Asia, millions of families and businesses still lack reliable electricity,” said T. Patrick Walsh, CEO and Co-Founder of Sun King. “We are proving that with the right products, financing, distribution, and local infrastructure, affordable clean energy can reach everyone — and that doing so is not just viable, but scalable and commercially sustainable.”

Another consequential innovation of the past year has been financial rather than technological. In July 2025, Sun King completed a $156 million securitisation in Kenya — the largest in Sub-Saharan Africa outside South Africa — bundling future pay-as-you-go customer repayments into investable securities and recycling capital back into new solar connections.

A parallel $80 million naira-denominated facility in Nigeria, raised from IFC and Stanbic IBTC, shielded customers from exchange-rate volatility and is expected to help Sun King triple its operations there.

“Our list of the Most Innovative Companies is about spotlighting organisations that don’t just adapt to change — they drive it,” said Brendan Vaughan, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “The companies we honour this year are redefining what leadership looks like in 2026, pairing bold ideas with measurable impact and turning breakthrough innovation into real-world value.”