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East African Company Moving From Selling Only Solar Energy to ‘Everything’
For the last four years Kenya-based consumer finance company M-KOPA has enabled 300,000 low-income earners in East Africa to acquire home solar energy systems using its pay-as-you-go model.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- renewable energy, solar
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Acumen Acquire SolarAid’s Off Grid Energy Research and Impact Division
Acumen, the global social impact organization, announced today its acquisition of the award-winning Research and Impact division of SolarAid, the international nonprofit and leading impact practitioner in the solar energy sector. In acquiring SolarAid’s research arm, Acumen builds on its decade of investing in off-grid energy, further deepening its understanding of the energy needs of low-income populations while measuring the social impact of newly electrified individuals and households. Acumen began investing in off-grid energy solutions in 2007 and today has the largest portfolio of companies committed to serving the poor.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Why This $5 Million May Matter Most for Off Grid Electric
When it received a $5 million award from the U.S. Agency for International Development last month, Off Grid Electric became the first company to receive all three rounds of funding from the Development Innovation Ventures program.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- renewable energy, solar
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Electrifying India, With the Sun and Small Loans
A few years ago, the hundred or so residents of Paradeshappanamatha, a secluded hamlet in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, gathered along the central pathway between their 22 densely clustered homes, and watched as government workers hoisted a solar-powered streetlamp. As the first display of electricity in the town, it was an object of mild interest, but, being outside, the light didn’t help anyone cook or study, and only attracted moths.
- Region
- South Asia
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Unilever, Acumen invest $800,000 in cleaner cookstoves
Acumen and Unilever announced they will invest nearly $800,000 to enable BURN Manufacturing to bring its new low-cost, energy-efficient, wood-burning cook stove, the Kuniokoa, to smallholder and plantation workers in tea estates in Kenya and Tanzania.
- Categories
- Energy, Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Challenges of Cleaning Up Cooking
Khushboo Kushwaha has a few years before she will have to squat in front of a filthy, smoking open stove three times a day to cook meals for her family, as her older sister and cousins do now.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
- Region
- South Asia
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After $19M equity round, Kenya’s M-Kopa is set to deliver solar power to a million homes
This month the company closed a $19 million financing round led by Generation Investment Management, and revealed plans to reach one million homes in East Africa by the end of 2017.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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New Microfinance Initiative to Bring First ‘Lease to Purchase’ Sustainable Energy Product to Somalia
Dahabshiil Group showcase sustainable 'green microfinancing' initiatives to foster economic and social development across Somali region.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- microfinance, solar