Climate-KIC: Solaris by Eternum, a successful crowd(funding) adventure

Climate-KIC start-up, Eternum Energy is using crowdfunding to support 120 entrepreneurs, and to set up a micro-loan system to support entrepreneurs in their future developments.

Eternum Energy supports individuals to get out of poverty through entrepreneurship.

They have developed an “incubation approach” for micro-businesses much like European start-up incubators – to support the enterprises with credit and mentorship.

Their approach distinguishes itself on three main aspects:

• The solar device is designed for micro-business purposes, giving to the entrepreneur the ability to track his own performance and thus to improve
• The entrepreneur benefits from personal coaching and follow-up operated by an Eternum local team (Solaris Rafiki), they empower the entrepreneur on bookkeeping, marketing, customer service to enable them to adopt sustainable practices
• The entrepreneur is invited to masterclasses once every 6-8 weeks to learn about business expansion, marketing techniques through lectures and role-play. Doing so he would be able to be stronger and expand faster and maybe consume more services.

‘Fund an entrepreneur’

Another aspect that stands out is the extended community driven approach that Eternum Energy has adopted.

To demonstrate the viability of their new model they are starting a pilot in the lake region of Tanzania to support 100 entrepreneurs.

Extending their community beyond the villages in Tanzania and to finance such initiative they initiated a crowd-funding campaign.

The uptake of the proposition to ‘fund an entrepreneur’ has been great and the fund raising has already reached 115%!

They now offer a new challenge: reach 140% in the next 15 days to enable them to support 120 entrepreneurs (instead of 100) and to set up a micro-loan system to support entrepreneurs in their future developments. Utilising the credit history that the entrepreneurs will build through paying for their Solaris solution.

Eternum Energy

Eternum Energy is a social start-up incubated by Climate-KIC. It has developed an access to energy solution called Solaris.

Their mission is to power and empower village entrepreneurs in developing countries so they can provide energy services to their off-grid communities and generate revenue at the same time.

Eternum provides a package of efficient solar technology with local training and support - all offered on a pay-as-you-go basis.

More information

Support them on http://www.kisskissbankbank.com/en/projects/solaris-project.

Follow their adventure on Facebook or on Twitter and through their website www.eternumenergy.com.