Some of my recent blog posts focused on venture capitalism (Wulff Capital, Agora Partnerships). Well, it must be a trend – I just came across Echoing Green.

Echoing Green is an angel investor for entrepreneurs focused on social change. They provide seed funding and support to entrepreneurs with innovative ideas for social change. As an angel investor in the social sector, Echoing Green identifies, funds, and supports emerging leaders around the world and the organizations that they launch. Echoing Green has a two-year fellowship program, in which they identify social entrepreneurs that develop new solutions to social problems.

I read with interest the bios and profiles of the class of Echoing Green fellows for 2007, which was announced last week. This new class includes people from all around the world. Three of the fellows work specifically within the BOP, and these are the ones I want to share here on NextBillion:

Gemma Bulos and Kevin Lee's project "A Single Drop for SafeWater" in Puerto Princesa City, Philippines is concerning independent community-based water organizations in the Philippines that will promote simple, affordable water treatment technologies and participatory strategies to improve community health. Their project is interesting because it will facilitate access to clean water to the people in the BOP living in the Philippines. The project combines low-cost technology with local community efforts to bring effective water systems to villages across the country. The BioSand Filter, one of ASDSW's many technologies, is a household water treatment that removes 95 to 100 percent of disease-causing organisms, helping families improve their health and hygiene. They also facilitate community-organized groups called PODS (People Offering Deliverable Services). PODS engages the community in implementing technologies and promoting water education throughout the different villages in the country.

Robert Mutsaers' project "Green Power" ...creat[es] affordable hydro-electric power systems owned and operated by rural Kenyan communities. His project is based in Kiangurwe, Kenya and it is innovative because he is developing new solutions for rural electrification in Africa. Conventional electricity is very expensive in Kenya and very few homes in rural communities are connected to the national power grid. By creating a cheaper, simpler, and community-driven solution, Green Power will accelerate the rural electrification process in a sustainable manner. In partnership with rural Kenyan farmers, local leaders, engineering companies, and universities, the organization will promote decentralized micro-hydro energy and distribution systems. Additionally, using hydro-power is a clean energy source for the environment. At the moment their immediate goal is to provide electricity to the rural communities on Mount Kenya.

 

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On NextBillion, we recently covered an editorial from Arun Maira of The Boston Consulting Group in India. Maira wrote that the organizations which will succeed in BOP markets will be those which don’t merely down-size existing products but invest in developing innovative business models.

Surinder Kapur’s column profiles a striking example of this – Cosmos Ignite Innovations.

Cosmos Ignite Innovations that produces low-cost lighting systems for developing countries was born at the first offering of the "Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability" course at Stanford University. The mission at Cosmos is to help “Removal of Darkness” for millions without light at the "Base of the Pyramid" (who are forced to use expensive & dangerous kerosene oil lamps in India & developing countries around the world). In remote India alone, 400 million people in remote India use kerosene lighting as their primary source of lighting.

Cosmos brought out Mighty Light - a disruptive product targeted to meet a social need product – with a highly innovative business model.

Mighty Light uses the latest LED technology combined with solar energy and is designed to be a waterproof, shockproof and multiple-function lamp that can be used as a room light, reading lamp or flashlight.

It uses a best-in-class 1-watt super-bright white LED bulb to illuminate and is capable of holding an eight-hour charge and designed to last an extraordinary 100,000 hours (up to 30 years on use of eight hours daily). It is cost-effective as it uses solar power to recharge and provides light enough to illuminate any room, especially helping the poor forced to use dangerous, polluting and expensive kerosene oil lamps.

While solar energy has been around for a long time, what is innovative is its use in combination with the revolutionary LED technology in Mighty Light, suddenly opening up a whole new market to more than 1.6 billion people without regular lighting around the world. Moreover, this is being done in a “green” manner, contributing to climate change control.

The for-profit business model chosen by Cosmos will ensure that Mighty Light sustains the social change it is bringing in countries such as India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Cambodia, Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Panama, Guyana and Colombia.

It’s heartening to see that instead of the traditional apathy towards darkness, this is a product that sustainably serves a real and urgent need.