startup social entrepreneurs help finance solar power social enterprises - solar powered street lights residential

The number of people in the world is amazing--1. 3 billion--
Without electricity supply, there are growing market opportunities for many social entrepreneurs.
I just wrote one, Nokero, which sells solar energy.
Electric bulb.
But SunFunder, another emerging company, took a very different approach: it helped sellers of solar energy --
Electricity lighting systems, mainly located in Africa, India and other developing countries, received funding.
San Francisco-
United headquarters
Ryan Levinson, founded in 2012, has been playing with the idea for several years before it was officially launched.
Other founders include Audrey desdrato, head of the company in Tanzania-
And Sameer Halai, the designer responsible for product and system development.
The company's focus is not only to use solar energy as a tool to provide lighting in places where there is no power infrastructure, but also to use it as a mechanism for charging mobile phones.
That said, SunFunder helps the community get lighting by using their phones and improves their communication and information access.
To this end, it aims at two capital flows.
One is the crowdfunding website, which lists individual projects that individuals can lend to la Kiva.
Go to the main page and you will see a list, for example, offering a $10,000 loan to a company that offers solar energy
Power lighting and mobile phone charging for 600 families in West Nile, Uganda (fully funded)
The other is $20,000, and there are 1,232 more lights in a small town in Zambia (
Also fully funded).
Another source of funding is private, certified and institutional investors through what Levinson calls solar-powered bonds, basically, a debt instrument.
Levinson spent about ten years on clean energy before launching SunFunder, first for a non-
Profits in Washington, D. C. C.
Then helped set up an environmental finance group for Wells Fargo, which, according to Levinson, has now invested about $1 billion in solar projects.
When he left, he took the time to travel in Southeast Asia and India and became increasingly confident that he could help find "commercial solutions for clean energy and climate change," he said ".
He is also becoming more aware of other things in the process.
First of all, how many people he met during his trip, whether it was lighting or charging his mobile phone, there was no electricity
From lack of security to poor economic growth to a very low standard of living, there will be negative effects.
Secondly, because the design cost of the new generation of solar products is low,
In the developed world, even without government subsidies, solar energy has become an affordable energy source for consumers, which helps to expand
Scale projects in the United StatesS.
However, small companies selling these products lack financing to develop their business.
The answer, then, is to help them get the money.
Levinson knew it was an ambitious project for himself, so he worked with two of his colleaguesfounders.
The initial project was small.
He said that while they "have changed people's lives", the scale is also expanding.
But Levinson wants to help the fund.
For example, a grid system that starts with a residential system.
They have brought a lot of problems to the start of the company, because this is capital --
Customers usually pay by installment.
Therefore, startups need to inject capital in advance before customers start paying their bills.
So far, the company has raised about $150,000 from more than 590 funders in 37 countries through the site.
The average loan was $200.
It has just issued its first bond, raising $250,000 from several angel investors and a Dutch
Foundation.
But as interest in influencing investment grows, SunFunder wants to start increasing its funds, from institutions to government agencies --Improve rapidly.
As for its own funds, the company was originally fully self-funded.
In last June, the company raised about $500,000 from 14 angel investors. (
Think about the effort to get money from those people that makes me tired).
Levinson said the company also recently received $25,000 in funding from Facebook, an idea to "integrate Facebook's social aspects into our web platform to help drive investors"
It received about 20,000 euros from the Swedish government.
Levinson said the initial focus was on East Africa, where "it seems to be the center of these businesses ".
The plan is to move from East Africa to West Africa and India.
Headquarters will stay in San Francisco, where to raise money
It makes sense to be wise.
But Levinson eventually hopes to fund "hundreds of millions of dollars in solar systems" every year.
"Some projects even surprised Levinson.
For example, a company he has just met in Kenya has installed solar street lights.
Levinson said that with a system installed last year, a small village was able to double the economic activity of the night market.
"Now you can see a variety of activities, from many small shops to people who repair motorcycles," Levinson said. "entrepreneurs-inspiration-for-solar-powered-
Light bulb for lighting/Nokero-shaped lantern-
Just like the LED light has an embedded solar panel that is connected to the battery and can collect energy.
222 for $45 to charge most phones or batteries
A device powered through a USB charging port and provides lighting.