2018B Will Snider 2018B Will Snider

Katswiri

Katswiri's mission is to distribute livestock and livestock services on loan to rural smallholder farmers in order to promote a better quality of life.

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; MALAWI

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PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Livestock market bundle.

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Katswiri's mission is to distribute livestock and livestock services on loan to rural smallholder farmers in order to promote a better quality of life.

The Katswiri distribution model is based on three part approach, that includes financing through the provision of livestock and livestock services on loan, training of rural farmers in livestock production best practices, and marketing support.

Katswiri’s plan is to provide long term sustainable livestock services to farmers in need and drive evidence-based impact.

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

  • Enroll 100 households in livestock program within first six months

  • Directly distribute 1,400 livestock units, offer a series of 3 agriculture production trainings and vaccinate 1,400 livestock units

  • Raise 20,000 USD in first six months and then scale operations in the next year pilot to reach 450 farmers with an estimated fundraising budget of 100,000 USD

FOUNDING TEAM

Sopani R. Neba - Founder and Team Lead

Judith Kamanga - Training and Livestock Extension Specialist

Graciano Ulemu Gawamadzi - Project Management and Evaluation Specialist

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2018B Will Snider 2018B Will Snider

Adolescent Health Champions

Adolescent Health Champions trains adolescent girls in India as health educators in their schools and communities.

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; INDIA

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PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Improving health outcomes by distributing a health education program. 

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions.

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Adolescent Health Champions cultivates a network of youth health educators (Champions) in Mumbai, India who lead the health education process in their schools and communities. We use an innovative, evidence-based peer education model that leverages the voices, talent, and leadership of adolescents themselves. Our approach provides adolescents with the knowledge, dialogue, support, and prevention strategies they need to navigate their health needs during this pivotal transition to adulthood.

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

  • Educate 5,000 adolescents during pilot

  • Train 625 peer educators during pilot

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Ricky Sharma - Co-Founder

Priya Shankar - Co-Founder

 

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2017 Will Snider 2017 Will Snider

Jibu Tanzania

Jibu Tanzania aims to tackle two major issues within East Africa and beyond: unemployment and lack of access to clean water. Their mission is to create affordable access to drinking water through franchised water production sites across Arusha.

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; TANZANIA

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PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Improving access to clean water through distribution. 

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions.

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Jibu Tanzania aims to tackle two major issues within East Africa and beyond: unemployment and lack of access to clean water. Their mission is to create affordable access to drinking water through franchised water production sites across Arusha. They will do this by having a water purification machine serving 50,000 people with an associated network of 10 local micro-resellers within an area of 2 kilometers around the production center. 

A 2010 demographic and health survey states that 60% of Tanzanians do nothing to treat their water. Most households have no home filtration system and many drink unboiled water. Water is sourced from house taps and outdoor standpipes and has a high concentration of fluoride which, when consumed long-term, can lead to severe physical ailments. Chlorine or sand filters alone do not remove fluoride and other harmful micro-biological pathogens. 

Jibu employs reverse osmosis as a water treatment method which allows for all harmful bacteria and parasites to be filtered out as well as 95% of floride. The water will be packaged, sold, and distributed in re-usable containers. Jibu partners with Healing Water International to access water filtration units as they do not manufacture their own. The secret to their prices is the efficiency of a decentralized, hyper-local business model because their focus is on underserved populations living in close proximity of each Jibu storefront. 

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

  • Serve 600 customers during the pilot

  • Serve 4,000 customers at the end of year 1

  • Sell 800 liters of water during the pilot 

  • Sell 5,333 liters of water at the end of year 1 

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Tayeb Noorbhai - Managing Director

Alex van Praag - Operations Manager

Bonaventure Bernard - Sales and Business Development

Giacomo - Marketing and Franchise Officer

 

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2017A Will Snider 2017A Will Snider

Shamba Pride

Farmers Pride provides supply chain management and a “last mile” village retail franchise model,
catalyzing a modern trade ecosystem for rural, smallholder agriculture. The model entails
commercially distributing quality farm inputs with bundled farmer extension, farmer training and other services like soil testing and insurance.

CUSTOM AGRICULTURE CHALLENGE; KENYA

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PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Quality seeds and other key inputs for rural farmers through a franchised agro dealer network and a youth agent network. 

Learn more about the Custom Agriculture Challenge and why distributing proven agricultural interventions can greatly improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Established in 2016, Shamba Pride (formerly Farmers Pride) offers one-stop B2B DigiShop franchise marketplace that empowers village level informal agro-dealer stores and cooperatives to digitize their operations. The company offers a supply chain solution to guarantee quality of inputs, information and services to local farmers to ensure increased farm production. Our DigiShop platform creates new agriculture opportunities to village-level farmers to access trusted and dependable information, inputs and services to succeed in their farming enterprises.

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

  • Distribute 11 tons of certified seeds by the end of year 1 

  • Reach 1,000 agro dealers by the end of year 1 

  • Reach 5,000 farmers by the end of year 1 

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Samuel Munguti - Founder and Chief Executive Officer 

Augustin Mutuku - Accounts Manager 

Catherine Musyoka - Head of Sales, Marketing and Farmer Training 

Alex Matui - Chief Technology Officer 

Joel Patenaude - Advisor 

 

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2017A Will Snider 2017A Will Snider

Community Based Participatory Immunization (CBPI)

Our mission is to combat vaccine preventable diseases through distribution of vaccination reminder bracelets and awareness creation on importance of childhood immunization in Nigeria.

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; NIGERIA

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PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

The distribution of vaccine reminder bracelets and awareness creation on the importance of childhood immunization in Nigeria. 

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions.

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

CBPI will pilot their initiative in Abuja and Niger state of Nigeria. From an initial needs assessment, the team found that health facilities in both locations lacked the means to remind mothers of their child's vaccination appointments aside from child health cards issued to mothers. 

The CBPI model has two components: vaccination bracelets (clean plastic bracelet put on the baby's wrist for nine months with holes punched in the plastic for each vaccination a child receives to enable health workers to monitor mothers' compliance with immunization schedule) and CareAlert (a bulk SMS reminder service to remind caregivers of vaccination appointments). 

The team will raise awareness of vaccinations and the importance of the bracelets via antenatal and postnatal sessions at healthcare facilities with 10,000 mothers in one year.  

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

  • 30 healthcare service providers reached with awareness raising during the pilot 
  • 1,500 bracelets distributed during the pilot phase 
  • 3,000 SMS messages sent during the pilot 
  • 14,400 mothers reached with awareness raising at the end of 1 year 
  • 240 healthcare providers reached by the end of year 2 
  • 36,000 vaccination bracelets distributed by the end of year 2 

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Dr. Emmanuel Egbroko - Co-Founder

Paul Ogboji - Co-Founder 

Chika Ozoemena - Co-Founder and Consultant 

Ikechukwu Oguomah - Co-Founder 

 

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2016 Will Snider 2016 Will Snider

Mobilized Construction

Mobilized Construction has developed a smart IoT device to measure and assess road conditions in real-time. Utilizing geospatial data from accelerometers, we calculate International Roughness Index...

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; KENYA

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PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

A proprietary software platform that enables coordinated, micro-contracted local labor to rehabilitate dirt roads. 

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions. 

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Infrastructure, like roads, have been identified as the largest enabler of economic development. Transportation accounts for 50% of the cost of a product in rural areas. Mobilized Construction has developed a proprietary software to complement existing road repair processes to build ease of use for local project planners. Data-collectors and civil engineers currently document road conditions by hand or use expensive vehicles equipped with sensors.

The second part of Mobilized Construction's platform is the Desktop Road Assessment Management tool for transportation planners and program managers to prioritize and assign repair work to manual laborers. Currently managers decide on road repair priorities based on intuition, community requests, or public pressure. This tool will equip individuals with data to make more equitable and inclusive decisions. The system will formalize informal and unskilled labor as well as create jobs for women and youth. 

The third part of the platform is the Field Supervisor mobile application for supervisors and field laborers to receive micro road repair contracts. After tracking daily progress and completing repairs, data collectors certified complete by measuring road conditions again and wages to laborers are transferred via mobile payments like M-Pesa. 

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

  • At the 6 month mark, 30-50 kilometers of road will be repaired

  • 30,000 lives will be impacted by the end of 6 months

  • 100-150 kilometers of road will be repaired by the end of year 1

  • 250,000 lives will be impacted by the end of year 1

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Kevin Lee - CEO

Gregory Islas - Data Scientist

Jens Egholm - CTO

 

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2013, 2013 Winter, 2013-2014 Mac Taylor 2013, 2013 Winter, 2013-2014 Mac Taylor

Pulse

Launched by Hult International Business School graduates, Pulse is the world’s first mobile commitment saving service. It will give millions of unbanked people a safe and convenient

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; INDIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

A mobile phone deposit system similar to popular talktime top-up methods to help low income families put aside money for household needs. 

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions.

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Through a network of certified Pulse vendors, users can 'save on impulse' and create a buffer of funds that serve as an insurance against emergencies and unexpected expenses. Furthermore, it provides a solution to the common issue of insufficient physical change, in which customers receive their change back in the form of candy rather than cash, a common occurrence in many developing countries. 

Pulse offers an electronic system that is more convenient for beneficiaries. Importantly, since the service is not tied to any particular carrier, it works on any mobile phone, and enables instant access to the service for all users. 

The customer experience: customer deposits leftover change or surplus income by buying a Pulse prepaid scratch card or leaving change with the shop owner and requesting an electronic deposit into the Pulse account; shop owner and customer receive an sms confirmation of the transaction with current balance; customer spends or withdraws their savings at any vendor in the Pulse network when needed. 

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

  • Sign up 1,000 Pulse savers during the pilot phase

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Karl Oskar Teien - Product Development 

Mandy Vidalis - Business Operations and Finance 

Niketa R. Malhotra - Implementation and Technology 

Saul Alexander Minkoff - Management and Business Development 

 

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2013, 2013 Winter, 2013-2014 Mac Taylor 2013, 2013 Winter, 2013-2014 Mac Taylor

Pay2Africa

Zacharias is launching Pay2Africa, an online payment business that allows users to send money transfers from the US to Ethiopia. Money2Ethiopia.com will

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; ETHIOPIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

An online and mobile platform that provides a fast, reliable, low-cost, and convenient way to send money to loved ones from the United States to Ethiopia. 

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions.

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Due to a lack of competition and a weak knowledge of the market, MoneyGram and Western Union - two major money transfer companies which charge high fees - have continued to dominate the remittance landscape in much of Africa. The only other option for customers looking to send money to Ethiopia is to use illegal hawala operators. 

Pay2Africa's vision is to become the leading online and mobile platform application used by the Ethiopian diaspora to send money from the US to Ethiopia. The website will allow senders to wire funds directly to a recipient's bank account or for cash pickup at one of over 750 partner bank branch locations spread throughout Ethiopia. Pay2Africa is both a website and a mobile platform application that integrates the latest encryption technology with a secure remittance software platform that addresses all Anti-Money Laundering Act and Bank Secrecy Act laws and regulations. The end result is a user-friendly platform designed for the target demographic, the Ethiopian diaspora. 

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

  • Send $300,000 in transfers by 2015

  • Save customers $10,000 in fees by the end of year 2

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Zacharias Teshome - Founder and President

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2013, 2013 Winter, 2013-2014 Mac Taylor 2013, 2013 Winter, 2013-2014 Mac Taylor

EarthEnable

Born from Stanford's "Design for Extreme Affordability" program, EarthEnable is helping Rwandan masons install $30 earthen floors, a much healthier alternative to dirt

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; RWANDA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

EarthEnable is helping masons install $30 earthen floors, a much healthier alternative to dirt floors and a much more affordable than concrete alternatives.

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions.

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

  • Vision to provide floors for at least 1 million individuals by the end of 2015

 

FOUNDING TEAM

 

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2013, 2013 Winter, 2013-2014 Mac Taylor 2013, 2013 Winter, 2013-2014 Mac Taylor

CleanTap

Columbia SIPA students are piloting CleanTap, a venture which has repurposed the well proven "Tippy Tap" handwashing station found in rural areas, and is now

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; INDIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

"Tippy Tap" handwashing station. 

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions.

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Street food is an integral part of Indian cities. Unofficial government estimates state that there are over a hundred million street food vendors in India. However, lack of infrastructure and awareness about food safety and handling among street food vendors makes it a significant contributor to food borne diseases. Through CleanTap, the organization aims to provide an easy, portable, DIY solution to the sanitation infrastructure challenge and combine it with an effective social marketing strategy to promote behavior change. 

A Tippy Tap is an easy, portable, low-cost device that encourages hard washing and saves water. It can be made with scraps of readily available local material. The apparatus involves a container that holds water with a hole on tap where the water flows out from. The flow of water is controlled by a foot lever. Their design of the Tippy Tap for food carts focuses heavily on portability. On average, a tippy tap involves a $1 investment per person to promote hand washing. It has been successfully deployed as a standalone product in rural areas of India. 

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

  • Launch pilot with 25 street food vendors 
  • Provide hand washing for 1500 customers in Mumbai

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Prerna Seth - Co-Founder

Molly Daniell - Co-Founder

Joel Putnam - Co-Founder

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2014, 2014 Spring Mac Taylor 2014, 2014 Spring Mac Taylor

Kouzin Dlo

Kouzin Dlo sells chlorine for household water treatment through a network of direct sales agents in Haiti. It will increase access to affordable clean water and create economic

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; HAITI

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Affordable water purification technology with chlorine. 

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions.

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Kouzin Dlo is a social enterprise combating the spread of cholera by increasing access to affordable water purification technology in Haiti. The organization is building a network of clean water entrepreneurs across the country to provide clean water for Haitians by Haitians. 

Kouzin Dlo entrepreneurs are trained in household water treatment, clean water and hygiene education, and marketing techniques. First, the entrepreneurs identify households in their communities to recruit as customers. They conduct door-to-door outreach to introduce potential customers to the benefits of chlorination, each them how to treat their own water supply, and sell chlorine. In addition, entrepreneurs will teach families about safe water storage and provide 5-gallon buckets with lids and taps for purchase. Entrepreneurs will return to families every two weeks to provide bottles of chlorine and answer any questions. Kouzin Dlo entrepreneurs can ear additional income by recruiting new entrepreneurs as the program grows and demand increases. The referring individual receives a percentage of the revenue of the chlorine purchased by the new agent from Kouzin Dlo. 

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

  • Establish two hubs with 15-20 agents each during the pilot phase
  • Expand to 6 communities during the pilot phase 
  • Reach 500 households within the pilot phase 
  • Build a nationwide network of 110 hubs within 3-5 years 

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Jessica Laporte - Founder and Director

 

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2014 Partner, 2014, 2013-2014 Mac Taylor 2014 Partner, 2014, 2013-2014 Mac Taylor

Asepsis

Asepsis will implement a highly integrated and sustainable system that resolves the problem of waste collection in urban slums. Using a lowcost and durable squat toilet, they

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; INDIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Low cost and durable squat toilets. 

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions.

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

The sanitation crisis in India is one of massive proportions and the situation is particularly pronounced in Dharavi - one of the world's largest slums - right outside of Mumbai. With approximately one toilet for every 1,1440 people, it is not surprising that upwards of 4,000 cases of disease are reported every day. 

The goal is to design a fifteen gallon cylindrical toilet - similar in shape and design to the Well WaterWheel, but with an airtight seal to repel odor and lined with a bio-plastic bag - to be distributed to Dharavi families. The toilet, once filled, will be taken to central collection site to be emptied, cleaned, and returned for continuous use. The waste will them be sold to a local sanitation company that turns it into compost. For every barrel returned, the family will receive 1/3 of the price the waste is sold for, providing an economic incentive for doing so. The other 2/3 of the profit will be used to maintain and expand our operations. 

Community hubs that receive these toilets will be an essential forum for allowing partner NGOs a chance to distribute vaccines and health care to Dharavi residents. To determine the location for these sites, Asepsis will team up with the Development Planning Unit of University College London which has pinpointed certain "catalytic sites" within the slum. Using this as reference will ensure that our system is easily integrated into Dharavi. 

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

  • Prototyping toilet design and establishing network during the first 6 months

  • Create 1 community hub and distribute 100 toilets to pre-approved families during the pilot phase

  • Distribute 400 more toilets by the end of year 2

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Evan Young - Co-Founder

Mas Obuz - Co-Founder

 

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2014, 2014 Winter, 2013-2014 Mac Taylor 2014, 2014 Winter, 2013-2014 Mac Taylor

Breakfast Revolution

India faces a silent malnutrition epidemic: ~40% of its children are malnourished leading to ~50% of all child deaths and 2-3% loss to India's GDP. The Breakfast Revolution aspires

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; INDIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Nutritious foods and other essential nutrition interventions for those facing malnutrition. 

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions.

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

The problem of malnutrition is more common in India (~43%) than in Sub Saharan Africa (~26%).  Anemia (low levels of hemoglobin) affects 74% children in India under 3 years, more than 90% of adolescent girls and 50% of women. More than 50% of all childhood deaths in India are attributed to malnutrition. The Breakfast Revolution tackles micronutrient (vitamins and minerals) and protein deficiency in children, adolescents and women from the poorest communities by leveraging proven interventions of food fortification, deworming, and vitamin A prophylaxis. To successfully distribute their fortified products, The Breakfast Revolution ensures they are low-cost, tasty, easily accessible, and evidence based. Their products are: 

  • Supercookie: Cookies made of whole wheat and oats, fortified with 70 -100% RDA of vitamins A, D, Calcium, Iron, Folic Acid, naturally rich in protein and fiber.

  • Supermilk: Vitamin A and D fortified, organically produced soy milk

  • Suberbeans: Air-roasted and flavored soybeans, intrinsically rich in protein

  • Superdrink: Similar to tang, fortified with vitamins C and B complex and electrolytes

The manufacturing is outsourced to Indian FDA-approved manufacturers and The Breakfast Revolution focuses on behavior change communication, distribution, and monitoring and evaluation. Consumers / beneficiaries are put on a program that begins with a baseline health evaluation, deworming and vitamin A prophylaxis, and 3-6 months of our food products 3-5 times a week. Health evaluations are repeated 3-6 times monthly. The Breakfast Revolution will utilize several distribution channels including selling directly to consumers through female entrepreneurs based in slums, selling products to NGOs offering meal programs, and through public-private partnerships with government nutrition programs to get their fortified products to the people who need them on a mass scale.  

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

  • Serve 1,400,000 meals in the first year

  • Reach 60,000 beneficiaries in 2 years

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Neelam Jethwani - Co-founder, Chief Operating Officer 

Dr. Pankaj Jethwani - Co-founder 

Manasvini Mehta - Director, Business and Micro-Franchise Development 

 

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2015, 2015 Spring Mac Taylor 2015, 2015 Spring Mac Taylor

PayGo Energy

PayGo Energy solves the root causes for reliance on inefficient fuels by removing key cost and supply barriers to modern energy. The PayGo smart meter technology enables micro-asset

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; KENYA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

A PayGo Energy device which couples onto any cylinder in the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) ecosystem and leverages mobile money and machine to machine technology to deliver LPG on a pay-as-you-go basis. 

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions.

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is the de facto cooking fuel for developed nations because it is clean (50 times less polluting than charcoal) and affordable. However, BOP customers are traditionally financially excluded from LPG due to the high upfront cost and rigid payment system. The LPG supply chain and retailer hub infrastructure is already in place in Kenya and other countries to reach BOP customers but marketers and retailers need a smarter distribution model and product to reach urban and rural BOP customers and fit within their daily budget.

The PayGo Energy device delivers payment, location, and LPG usage data at the unit level through GSM technology. Partners receive critical insights into customer usage that helps them deploy their fleet more effectively. In urban areas, they are able to maintain their cylinder fleet within informal settlements through orchestrated refilling runs, combating illegal refilling and increasing customer retention. Within rural settings, where BOP customers do not have the benefit of a robust LPG retailer network,  location and consumption data will provide the insights necessary for a paradigm shift in distribution. 

PayGo Energy will partner with LPG marketers and overlay onto the existing LPG infrastructure. Due to the fragmented nature of the retailer and gas station LPG ecosystem, prioritizing marketer partnerships over retailer partnerships is a fundamental component of our strategy. The PayGo smart meter technology enables micro-asset financing and pay-as-you-go functionality that critically align with BoP customers’ variable income streams. The business model will be a service fee per transaction. 

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

  • Fabricate 10 units during the pilot
  • Install in 10 households during the pilot 
  • Post 100 household PoM, team will seek Series A funding to build network capacity, reduce unit cost, and build full operations to handle up to >100,000 households with one or more marketer partners

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Nick Quintong - Co-Founder

Fausto Marcigot - Co-Founder

Laura Talsma - Co-Founder

 

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2015, 2015 Partner Mac Taylor 2015, 2015 Partner Mac Taylor

Zero Violencia

Zero Violencia will prevent violence in Paraguay by distributing life skills development, a strategy recommended by the WHO as proven to reduce aggressive behavior in youth. They

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; PARAGUAY

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Life skills programming for children. 

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions. 

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Statistics on violence in Paraguay are alarming. Studies have shown that 60% of children experience abuse at home, 20% of women are victims of domestic violence, and 70% of victims do not report the issue. Teachers report concerning levels of bullying and physical aggression even at elementary schools and one study has reported that 42% of violent episodes reported were related to sexual violence. These numbers do not capture long-term consequences of violent incidents like post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, depression, or violent behavior. 

Zero Violencia will develop a curriculum designed to foster WHO's 10 essential life skills: problem solving, critical thinking, effective communication, decision-making, creative thinking, interpersonal relationship skills, self-awareness building, empathy, and comping with stress and emotions. They will incorporate lessons that have successfully engaged youth in Paraguay in the past. 

Distribution will begin in Coronel Oviedo, a city of 110,000 people that has been ignored by NGOs despite extremely high poverty levels. Their distribution plan includes four steps: build local partnerships, recruit and train facilitators, launch programs, and conduct evaluation. 

 

PILOT and scaling GOALS

  • Reach 800+ children during the pilot 

  • Reach 1140 children by the end of year 1 

  • Reach 2880 children by the end of year 2 

  • Reach another 4320 younger children by the end of year 2 through associated tutoring and games for a total of 7200 students. 

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Estee Katcoff - Founder and CEO

Maria Martinez - Program Manager 

Genaro Cardozo - Community Organizer

Laura Lopez - Youth Organizer 

 
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2015, 2015 Partner Mac Taylor 2015, 2015 Partner Mac Taylor

Kumwe Logistics

Kumwe Logistics is a tech-enabled brokerage that lowers the cost of transporting goods in East Africa. Freight transportation costs 60% more than in developed countries, which has a

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; RWANDA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Technologies and services used for logistics services and freight. Kumwe will stimulate the transporter network by building a platform to easily connect the organizations and individuals in need of transport with transporters. 

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions. 

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Freight transportation costs 60% more than in developed countries, which has a crippling effect on economic development. Kumwe is lowering these costs by connecting shippers and truck owners via an online marketplace. By working with Kumwe, shippers gain access to a larger network of price-competitive transporters, and these transporters gain access to more jobs. Kumwe started operation in Rwanda in August 2016 with 23 completed transports in the first month, and is expanding its operations into Uganda in early 2017.

Kumwe will establish a mobile-based freight brokerage system, Kumwe. Instead of searching for trucks through countless channels, you send one request to a freight broker, either through an online portal or directly through a person. You specify the load details - time, pick-up, drop-off, size, cargo type, etc. - and immediately receive quotes from several carriers. You then select one carrier, considering both the price and past service levels which the broker carefully tracks. Any issues with the transporter are reported back to the broker. 

On the back end, the broker is primarily a digital platform. Drivers and their trucks are kept in a database; when a request for transport comes in, it is forwarded via mobile phone to carriers that meet the order needs. Drivers then use their mobile phones to bid on or ignore the request. Once you select a driver, the deal is confirmed and payment held by the broker. Upon completion of the job, drivers are rated by the customer based on metrics like on-time pickup, on-time delivery, cargo damage or shrinkage. After confirming there are no major issues, funds are released to the driver. 

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

  • Register 20 independent truck driers and freight companies

  • Establish 1-2 main partners to build volume backbone 

  • Offer free trial period to get sticky with user base 

  • Register 100 drivers and freight companies by the end of year 1 

  • 150+ transactions per day by year 2 

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Cyril Khamsi

Chris Creyts

Nora Weisskopf

Charles Dokmo

Emily Gooding

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