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Energy 4 Impact supports Mozambique debt crowdfunding campaign by SolarWorks!

26/10/2017

SolarWorks!, a solar home system distributor in Mozambique launched its first crowdfunding campaign on Netherlands-based debt crowdfunding platform, Lendahand.  

The campaign, which aimed to raise EUR 100,000 ($118,000) in debt to fund the installation of 1,000 solar home systems to households in Mozambique, achieved its target in just a few hours.

SolarWorks! was founded in 2008 and is based out of the incubator of the University of Technology in Delft, the Netherlands. Research & product development takes place in the Netherlands, and their technology is distributed in Mozambique, where over 80% of the 29 million inhabitants do not have access to electricity. SolarWorks! believes Mozambique is a largely untapped market with great potential due to fast growing mobile money penetration – an important driver of growing sales in the PAYG off-grid solar market.

At the launch of the campaign, Crowd Power Programme Manager, Davinia Cogan said:

This will be the first campaign Crowd Power has supported in Mozambique and we are looking forward to sharing learnings from the campaign, as well as SolarWorks! progress. We have now supported energy access crowdfunding campaigns in over 15 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Crowd Power is an experimental programme and is driven by a research agenda so we are always looking to broaden our reach through our interventions, whether through cutting-edge support mechanisms like co-guarantees , or through the support of new technologies and markets.

SolarWorks! offers modular systems, allowing households and businesses to scale up their systems over time. The company has installed 3,000 systems in Mozambique and aims to install another 10,000 systems in the coming 12 months. Through a partnership with Vodacom, SolarWorks! systems are now also available in Vodacom stores, as well as their own distribution outlets.

The crowdfunding campaign will allow SolarWorks! to install 1,000 solar home systems, providing 1,000 households with access to solar energy. The company's systems are modular – with 10W, 50W and 100W systems available – allowing customers to upgrade their system over time. Repayments are made over a 24 month, 30 months or 36 month repayment schedule, depending on the amount the customer can afford to pay each month. SolarWorks!’s smallest system requires a down payment of $14, with monthly repayments of $7 per month for 36 months.

Energy 4 Impact supported the SolarWorks! campaign as part of the Crowd Power programme, which provides funding to support energy access related donation, reward, debt and equity crowdfunding campaigns. Crowd Power will provide EUR 25,000 in funding as a guarantee, which will act as first-loss protection for investors. In the case of default, funds contributed by Energy 4 Impact will absorb the loss before the crowd. Crowd Power is funded by UK Aid and has supported 99 energy access crowdfunding campaigns on nine crowdfunding platforms – GlobalGiving, M-Changa, Indiegogo, Pozible, Kiva, Trine, Bettervest, Lendahand and Crowdcube. Crowd Power is publishing a series of reports sharing learnings from the programme. The first two reports can be accessed here and the third report – on crowdfunding campaign success and failure – will be published in November 2017.