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Press release: €1 million crowd funded in record time for off-grid solar
TRINE and BBOXX launched its first of six crowdfunding rounds on 10 February. The €1 million target was hit on 9 March, making it the fastest fundraise of debt finance ever in the industry. The loan will be disbursed at the beginning of April and enable BBOXX to scale up its operations in Kenya.
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- Press release
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Asian Development Bank, International Solar Alliance sign pact to promote solar energy
The cooperation envisages solar power generation, solar based mini-grids, and transmission systems for integrating solar energy into grids, among others.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Two Trends and a Caveat: The Three Factors That Will Define Impact Investing’s Future
New players in impact investing will benefit everyone across the value chain, from investors to end users, who focus on underserved populations to have impact at scale, writes Jean-Philippe de Schrevel, founder and managing partner at Bamboo Capital Partners. Meanwhile, technological innovation will continue to propel the industry. But he also cautions that big momentum means big expectations – on both investors and investees – to deliver on their promise to generate both financial and social returns.
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- Investing, Technology
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Mastercard, M-Kopa enter pilot pay-as-you-go solar partnership in Africa
M-Kopa Solar makes solar home systems affordable to low-income off-grid households on a pay-as-you-go installment plan. Its customers get power on daily mobile money payment plans and the cost is lower than that of kerosene fuel.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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‘Eye-opening’ Impact Assessment: How Benchmarks Can Boost Social and Business Outcomes
For the last ten years, Acumen has been investing in off-grid energy companies in the developing world. In its new Energy Impact Report, the impact investing nonprofit talked directly to thousands of customers about their experiences - good and bad - with these companies’ energy products. Acumen's Kat Harrison discusses the survey's revealing results.
- Categories
- Energy, Impact Assessment, Investing
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Social enterprise Pollinate Energy has provided 20,000 urban poor families with affordable, green energy
In 2012, six young Australians — Jamie Chivers, Monique Alfris, Ben Merven, Katerina Kimmorley, Emma Colenbrander, and Alexie Seller — came together to see if they could find a way for children living in a slum in North Bengaluru, to have light to study.
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- Energy
- Region
- South Asia
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Everyone’s a winner? How ‘impact investing’ can make money – and do good
Previously the domain of corporations and the wealthy, impact investing is now available to anyone with small amounts of cash to spare - with investments in community cinemas, affordable housing or low cost gyms - from as little as $70.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Businesses in boxes: how solar is creating African entrepreneurs
Access to power is a major issue in Africa, and in solar, many people feel they have the solution.
Yet solar is doing more than switching on off-grid populations, and providing a potentially lucrative and investor friendly business opportunities to companies like M-KOPA Solar and BBOXX.- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa