Affordable Power & Light Solutions
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2 Billion people in the world currently live without access to electricity. They rely primarily on kerosene for their lighting needs; a source of light that is expensive and hazardous. We believe that in an era of unprecedented technological growth, we can bring light, safety and prosperity to millions of hardworking households. We want to make kerosene lanterns a part of history, where they belong. |
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New Investors We are very excited to share that we are finalizing an investment from Acumen Fund and Mahindra & Mahindra in the next week who have recently decided to join on as additional seed investors. Both investors bring incredible experience and networks in India with distribution, manufacturing and financing. The Acumen Fund is a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty. This is one of their few seed investments and one of their first investments in the energy space. Mahindra & Mahidnra is a five billion dollar company that has extensive experience with rural distribution and financing in India. Our seed round is now closed, and we expect to raise a Series A round of financing upon the conclusion of the market tests.
Product Development Through heroic efforts from our engineers, we have been able to surpass our very aggressive product development timelines and have completed the final product design, ready for manufacturing. We will be spending the month of September vetting and selecting a high volume manufacturer in China. Xian, Nick and Ned will be in China to visit our partners in China. India here we come! Now that the product has been built, we are heading to India to validate our product. Erica is leading two teams of experienced needfinders who will be going to villages and slums in six different states where they will be doing in-depth needfinding with customers to determine the best regions to launch the product and to begin developing products #2 and #3. Sam and Ned will be on a hyper-active schedule, meeting with over 150 distributors and strategic partners. In addition, we are working with teams from the Indian School of Business (5 MBAs), from the Drishtee Foundation and from the Center of NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning to do additional market research in five additional states.
Upcoming Events & Important Dates
d.lighthouse Happy Hour Since almost all of our team will be abroad, we won't be having our regular Friday happy hours in September. We'll let you know when we start up again in October!
Sam, our CEO, has been invited to write a weekly blog on the Social Edge where he will join other very cool social enterprises like Kiva and FORGE. Check it out at: http://www.socialedge.org/blogs/let-there-d-light
You can also check out Sam's Global X interview at http://www.socialedge.org/blogs/global-x
How you can support us
We are hiring
One of our top priorities is to hire an experienced VP of Sales and Marketing who can manage our sales team in India. The job description and requirements are posted here. If you or someone you know has extensive experience in rural marketing in India and would be interested in joining a fast-growing social enterprise, please let us know. |
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