Nearly 1.2 billion people lack access to electricity. In just two years, a Gothenburg-based company has helped more than 50,000 people get electricity through crowdfunding.
The Gothenburg-based company Trine aims to help solar power entrepreneurs in Africa with funding so they can thrive and help people escape energy poverty. Using crowdfunding as a platform, they give Europeans the opportunity to invest sustainably and enable local solar power companies in developing countries to search for loans.
Trine’s digital platform gives local solar power companies in developing countries the chance to search for loans. The platform uses crowdfunding as a business model to find funding for these solar power entrepreneurs. So far, over 450 investors in 20 countries have provided over 442,000 euros in loans, hoping for returns of 5-7% each year. This has helped finance eight different projects in Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda and Senegal. Trine and the investors share the interest paid by the entrepreneurs taking the loans.
Trine asked themselves whether people were willing to accept the risks of projects like this and found that many have a social interest as well as an interest in a return on investment.
Nearly 1.2 billion people in the world lack access to electricity. They are forced to rely on kerosene lamps or just a bowl filled with diesel or kerosene for light. Lamps that are both a health risk and a fire hazard. Electricity is cheaper, healthier and more environmentally sustainable, but the local power companies need funds to buy the electrical systems required to sell the electricity to local communities.
Trine is a Gothenburg-based start-up and has grown quickly. Since being founded in 2015, they have helped over 50,000 people gain access to electricity.
