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Off-Grid Solar Firm PEG Africa completes US$13.5 million fundraise
PEG Africa, the leading off-grid solar company in West Africa, is pleased to announce it has successfully raised US$13.5 million through a combination of debt and a Series B equity financing. The proceeds will be used to accelerate growth in Ghana and Ivory Coast, where PEG is already a sector leader, to reach 500,000 people.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Are Financial Returns Starting to Compete with Social Goals? An Impact Investor Assesses its Involvement in Off-Grid Solar
In the second of two posts, Oikocredit's Laura de Bresser assesses the social and environmental value of its off-grid solar investments: Is achieving financial returns starting to compete with social impact? Here's what the investment firm discovered about whether it's really helping people and the planet – and whether it should continue investing in this market.
- Categories
- Energy, Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Impact Investing and the Profitability Challenge in Off-Grid Solar: Oikocredit Joins the Debate
The debate around impact investing in off-grid solar has sparked surprising passion, and now Oikocredit joins the discussion with a two-post series. In this first post, Laura de Bresser tackles the question of how (and whether) off-grid solar companies can become operationally profitable and less dependent on equity and debt.
- Categories
- Energy, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Solar Lighting in Remote Rural Areas: Oversold or Truly Illuminating?
It's common wisdom that solar lighting can make a dent in serious problems plaguing the developing world. But the underwhelming social impact measured in a recent randomized controlled trial calls that belief into question. However, research conducted by Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship, based on in-depth interviews with solar lighting users in Tanzania, found much more positive results. Thane Kreiner and Leslie Gray of Santa Clara University explore possible reasons for the disparate findings.
- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise
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Social Entrepreneurs, Ignore the Mantra of Focus at Your Own Peril
When SunFarmer went through Y Combinator in 2015, its founders heard a lot of startup wisdom, including the mantra of focus. But according to co-founder Andy Moon, the Nepal-based social enterprise ignored this advice –
then struggled to sell multiple products to multiple customer segments simultaneously. Moon discusses what went wrong, and how his firm is regrouping.- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- Base of the Pyramid, solar
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Solar & Renewable Energy Pioneer Kingo Announces $8.0 Million Series B Financing Round
Kingo, through its innovative prepaid solar energy service, turns lives ON for off-grid households at the bottom of the economic pyramid (BoP).
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Investing
- Region
- Latin America
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Loans for solar systems make power affordable in rural Kenya
Until recently, Njoroge’s home northwest of Kenya's capital, Nairobi, was poorly lit at night. Most people in Ndabibi are not connected to mains electricity, and rely on kerosene or small solar lamps to light their homes.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Renewable energy firm feted for providing solar-powered ‘sari-sari’ stores in nation’s rural areas
The company, a winner of the Impact Hub Fellowship (Incubation) program in April, helps and trains communities with limited resources of potable and viable water via solar-power pumps, precipitation devices and rainwater harvest.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- renewable energy, solar
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