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Katerina Kimmorley and Pollinate Group: eradicating energy poverty by empowering women through solar energy

Hadiya Faheem (Case Research Center, ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad, India)
Sanjib Dutta (Case Research Center, ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad, India)

The Case For Women

ISSN: 2732-4443

Publication date: 18 May 2022

Case summary

Study level/applicability

MBA/MS level programs.

Subject area

Social entrepreneurship, sustainability and business strategy.

Case overview

The case discusses about how social entrepreneur Katerina Kimmorley founded Pollinate Energy with five of her friends to provide solar lights to the urban slum dwellers in Bengaluru, the capital city of Karnataka, a state in the Southern part of India. The company recruited people known as “Pollinators” for distributing their solar lights to the communities on installments making it affordable to them. To scale-up its sustainable energy initiatives and expand its global reach, Pollinate Energy merged with the US-based solar energy company Empower Generation in 2018 to form Pollinate Group. Since the company was making losses and was a nonprofit organization, the new CEO of Pollinate Group Sujatha Ramani and the senior management team had to tackle the challenge of scaling up the company while financially empowering women microentrepreneurs from marginalized communities.

Expected learning outcomes

Study Pollinate Energy’s business model and explore ways in which it can be made sustainable. Discuss the personality traits of Kimmorley which contributed to her success. Discuss how the merger with Empower Generation will help Pollinate Group in expanding its global reach. Explore ways in which the venture can be scaled up further.

Social implications

Pollinate Group focused on women empowerment to tackle the gender inequality challenge. The company provided equal opportunities for men and women, thereby removing discrimination from access to opportunities, sources, services and promotion of equal rights.

Supplementary materials

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

Subject code

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship

Keywords

Citation

Faheem, H. and Dutta, S. (2022), "Katerina Kimmorley and Pollinate Group: eradicating energy poverty by empowering women through solar energy", The Case For Women. https://doi.org/10.1108/CFW.2022.000010

Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, ICFAI Business School.

Our dream is to make energy poverty non-existent and we know that we can make that dream a reality [1].

– Emma Colenbrander, co-founder, Pollinate Energy, in 2016.

If we can be across the world providing sustainable energy solutions and sustainable energy products to people at the bottom of the pyramid everywhere, that is a world I would like to live in [2].

– Katerina Kimmorley, co-founder, Pollinate Energy, in 2015.

Introduction

In 2012, when Pollinate Energy (later renamed Pollinate Group) began a social business to provide clean energy solutions to the marginalized communities in India and Nepal, little did it think that it would end up becoming the largest provider of solar lighting across both the countries. As of June 2020, Pollinate Group had provided solar lights and other sustainable energy products to around 697,000 people across India and Nepal. In addition to this, the social enterprise had empowered more than 905 women by setting them up as microentrepreneurs, thus bringing about positive change in their communities [3].

Ever since social entrepreneur Katerina Kimmorley (Kimmorley) (she) with five others –Jamie Chivers, Monique Alfris, Ben Merven, Emma Colenbrander and Alexandra Seller – had founded Pollinate Energy in 2012, she and her team had been involved in dealing with one of the most pressing problems in developing countries worldwide – energy poverty. In 2018, the World Bank [4] reported that around 288.5 million people lived in poverty in India and Nepal, earning less than US$1.9 per day [5]. Most of these people were concentrated in urban areas rather than in rural areas. They lived in makeshift tents made of plastic sheets, drank poor quality water, had no basic sanitation facilities and used a kerosene lamp for lighting. The women cooked on an open wood fire. In 2018, the World Bank also reported that worldwide, around three billion people cooked using solid fuels such as charcoal, wood, crop wastes, cow dung and kerosene and nearly 3.8 million people among those died prematurely from illnesses attributed to indoor air pollution [6]. In addition to health and environmental concerns, lack of reliable energy sources meant students could not study for an extended length of time at night due to irritation and pain in the eyes caused by the emission of smoke from the light sources they used.

In 2012, Kimmorley came to India for her London School of Economics’ (LSE) master’s dissertation research. While doing her research in photovoltaics, she stayed in Bengaluru [7], near communities of poor urban slum dwellers who lived in tents made of tarpaulin sheets. Because they were transient in nature and had no money, they could not get access to grid electricity, and they lacked money to buy solar lamps from retail stores in Bengaluru. Thus, Kimmorley sought to do something to tackle the problem of energy poverty.

Having completed her LSE research, she boarded a flight from Delhi to London on July 31, 2012. As the plane ascended, she peered out to look at the twinkling lights in the Delhi metropolis, the capital state of India, but she saw only pockets of light. She did not realize that northern India had faced the largest blackout the world had ever witnessed, with around 700 million people living without lights on that night. After arriving in London, she saw that all the leading dailies had covered the catastrophe but ignored the bigger tragedy that out of those 700 million, around 300 million to 400 million people lived without access to electricity every night [8]. It was her “aha” moment, one that convinced her to return to India to try and provide lights to those who did not have access to electricity.

Kimmorley and five of her friends initially decided to bring in some solar lights from Australia and distribute them to the urban slum dwellers in Bengaluru for free. However, she and her team realized that if they could set up a social business instead, they would be able to help millions of such people who lacked access to electricity. Thus in 2012, Kimmorley and her friends founded Pollinate Energy. Monique Alfris (Alfris) (she), one of the cofounders of Pollinate Energy, recommended that the company have a distribution model where people would be recruited and trained to sell solar lights to the urban slum dwellers. These people would be called “Pollinators.” The Pollinators would sell the solar lights to the communities on installments which the consumers could repay within a four- to eight-week period. Since Kimmorley had lived near the communities of urban slum dwellers from 2012 to 2016 while doing her LSE research as well as providing sustainable energy solutions to them, she realized that life in a slum was really hard. She observed that women in those communities did odd jobs to earn money. Thus, she decided to recruit women from the slums as microentrepreneurs at Pollinate Energy to enable them to get access to clean energy while empowering them financially. Commenting on how her focus shifted from merely tackling energy poverty to women, Kimmorley said, “It was a totally humbling experience. We were so idealistic. The reality of life in a slum, which we did for nearly five years, was a real reality check. For the first period I was there, I was doing my masters research and was really involved living next to those slum communities, and it started out really philosophical about poverty and climate change and all the big ideas, but within a few days it became mainly about the women.” (Taylor-Kabbaz, 2021)

In 2016, Kimmorley moved to Australia to join the Innovation Fund at the Clean Energy Finance Corporation [9] (CEFC) to build many more businesses such as Pollinate Energy. But she continued to be associated in a nonexecutive role with Pollinate Energy.

To scale-up its sustainable energy initiatives and expand its global reach, Pollinate Energy merged with the US-based solar energy company Empower Generation (EG) in 2018 to form Pollinate Group. EG offered sustainable energy solutions to poor rural consumers in Nepal. Like Pollinate Energy, EG empowered women by encouraging them to become microentrepreneurs. As a merged entity, Pollinate Group trained more than 900 women to become microentrepreneurs and provided clean energy products to nearly 700,000 people as of April 2021. By the end of 2021, the company had plans to train 1,000 women (Mathew, 2021).

Since the company was dependent on grants and donations and did not garner profits, going forward, how will the new chief executive officer (CEO) of Pollinate Group, Sujatha Ramani (Ramani) (she) and the senior management team tackle the challenge of scaling up the company while financially empowering women microentrepreneurs from marginalized communities?

Katerina Kimmorley and Pollinate energy

Kimmorley grew up in one of the most beautiful coastal areas in Australia – the northern beaches of New South Wales. Since her childhood, her family upbringing had instilled in her the quality of social justice. As a student, she became the captain of social justice in school, where she got involved in several charities.

As a child, she experienced a life changing moment when her father got emotional seeing coal ships waiting to go to Wollongong and Newcastle. He looked at them and said, “This is going to ruin our paradise” [10]. Seeing her father, who Kimmorley knew was a strong person, getting emotional, shook her up. Thus, she decided to study solar power or photovoltaics at the university. At that time, Australia had one of the best colleges in the world for pursuing photovoltaic engineering. Soon, she realized that if Australia could have come up with an alternative to the coal ships, things would have been different. She realized that the technology was not enough to tackle such challenges; it also needed funding, policy and support. Thus, Kimmorley shifted her focus to studying commerce and liberal studies in a bid to learn “the language of money makers and policy people” and eventually got an honors degree in energy economics at the University of Edinburgh. She then went on to do her Master’s and PhD in Environmental Economics and Climate Change at the LSE.

In 2012, one of Kimmorley’s friends raised some funds through charity and built an orphanage in Bengaluru. But there were no lights for the children living in that orphanage to study. She then invited Kimmorley, who was working in renewable energy at that time, to provide lights at the orphanage.

Before working for this orphanage, Kimmorley and her team had worked with an Australian business 40 K Home, which focused on educating a small migrant community living on the outskirts of Bengaluru. The community used kerosene for lighting and requested Kimmorley to get them access to electricity as they knew that it would dramatically improve their lives. Kimmorley felt that solar lighting would be an affordable step before getting them full access to grid electricity. Subsequently, she and her team provided solar lights to three slums. They soon realized that this was not the only group of people in the city without access to electricity – there were several hundreds of such communities.

Kimmorley concluded that the problem had a simple solution – procure a lot of solar lights from Australia and distribute them to those in the city without access to electricity. However, she soon realized that the problem was much bigger. Since Kimmorley lived next to the slum communities while doing her LSE Master’s dissertation research, she experienced firsthand the poverty in India, and it upset her deeply. She saw people living in tents with tarpaulin sheets covering the roofs with no access to grid electricity or potable water. During that time, i.e. in 2012, around 65 million people were living in urban slums, and they lacked the basic necessities of life such as access to potable water, lighting and sanitation facilities. According to Kimmorley, “Sadly, most families are not educated about the better alternatives out there. They have no way to access them, and no idea how these alternatives could be used to improve their lives. And due to their low earning and transitory nature, families living in slums have no access to finance to enable them to purchase the products they need” [11]. She felt distressed and sought to do something for these slum dwellers.

Kimmorley spoke to a few women living in these communities and found that they were only too aware that the kerosene smoke was slowly killing them and their children. They also complained that their children could not study at night. Kimmorley along with some of her friends approached several microfinance organizations in India but did not achieve any success as the microfinancers considered the urban slum dwellers “too poor” and “too risky” to offer them finance. It was then that Kimmorley’s work became much more than providing solar energy to these slum dwellers. She and her team felt that they had to provide an end-to-end solution which would include technology, distribution and financing.

Kimmorley and her friends pooled US$50,000 of their savings to tackle the problem of energy poverty in the slums of Bengaluru. Initially, they decided to buy 1,000 solar lights from Australia and distribute them for free to these communities. However, they soon realized that they could use this capital instead to buy and sell solar lights to these urban slum dwellers with a no-interest loan. This would enable the slum dwellers to repay the loan over a four- to eight-week period in the same amount they were paying for kerosene each week. With this, Kimmorley and her team planned to recycle the money they had and reach tens of thousands of such people. She added that by doing this, she and her team aimed to create a sustainable business model, which would have way more impact than just a donation model.

Kimmorley, as part of her LSE research, had done a “willingness-to-pay” study. The research unveiled that people in the community stated that they would pay more money for a solar lantern which could also charge mobile phones rather than paying less for a simple solar lantern. According to them, the mobile charging lantern would enable them to call their families, call people at work and listen to music. In addition to this, children would have light to study at night and women can cook in the house while also allowing them to socialize in the evenings.

Thus, Kimmorley, in association with five of her friends, founded Pollinate Energy in 2012. All of them shared a common passion for providing sustainable energy and improving access to electricity in the developing nations. She and her cofounders combined their expertise in engineering, energy economics, project management, international development, law and industrial design and developed a social business model to bring solar lighting to these slums.

Kimmorley did not seek any support from the Indian Government for her venture, and the Australian Government did not provide any donor support to India. Hence, she and her team started a crowd-funding website in Australia, wherein they raised US$10,000[11]. Soon they received huge support from multiple corporates in Australia, in addition to receiving philanthropic support from high-net worth individuals. But the major part of the financial support was received from individuals who helped Pollinate Energy financially on a monthly basis.

Solar lighting solutions

Kimmorley and her team chose solar products that would suit the needs and challenges of urban slum dwellers facing extreme weather conditions. The solar lighting system was robust as well as portable. Slum dwellers in Bengaluru were transient in nature as they built their tent houses in areas prone to storms. Thus, having a lighting system which would enable them to move during the dark, wet condition was a huge asset.

The solar lighting system came as a toolkit comprising an easy-to-install solar panel, LED lamps and a rechargeable battery. The product was available as a torch, desk lamp, hanging light and as fixed light for separate rooms. The company’s flagship product SunKing Pro2 cost the company US$25 and was sold at INR [12] 3,000 (US$40.46) (See Exhibit 1 for solar products range offered by Pollinate Energy) (Rao, 2018) [13]. The solar lighting products were manufactured by Greenlight Planet [14] and B-Corp [15], both certified organizations. The solar lamps had three settings – the brightest setting provided 8 h of light, the second brightest setting provided energy for 16 h and the third setting provided light for 24 h.

In addition to solar lights, Pollinate Energy offered clean cooking stoves, solar fans and other products such as biodegradable sanitary napkins. The products ranged from INR 1,000 (US$13.49) to INR 3,000 (US$40.46) and lasted for around three to five years. The company offered the slum dwellers flexible weekly payment plans as the solar products could be bought in installments.

The business model

Having the solar products in hand, the next challenge for Kimmorley and her team was to sell the products to these communities. According to Australian National Manager at Pollinate Energy, Anna McGregor (McGregor) (she), “The co-founders set out with a trial of selling solar lights themselves via a market stand, but they failed and realised quickly they needed to innovate” [16]. This initial setback led to Kimmorley and her team deciding to set up the business model for selling their solar lanterns to urban slum dwellers.

According to the CEO of Pollinate Energy, Alexandra Seller (Alexandra) (she), the team at Pollinate Energy looked at solar distribution models across the world, such as Solar Sister [17] and Grameen Shakti [18]. These models catered to rural households wherein villagers formed Self Help Groups (SHGs) and placed huge trust in each other. They employed an agent from the village who was given the responsibility to sell, distribute and service the solar energy products. According to Alexandra, the team at Pollinate Energy tried to replicate the business model in the urban areas. However, they identified that the social fabric of these urban slum dwellers was different from that of the rural households. They found that the slum dwellers living in urban areas did not know their neighbors and they spoke three to four different languages. According to Alexandra, in their research, the team at Pollinate Energy found out that even without SHGs, the urban slum dwellers in Bengaluru were willing to pay for solar products themselves.

Alfris believed that distribution was crucial to reach these consumers. Before working for Pollinate Energy, Alfris had worked for a bank in Indonesia, where she witnessed that customers did not take loans to buy solar lights. According to her, “The product was really good; people knew they would save money, but the service that was provided with the products was terrible!” [19] She pointed out that the missing link was the distribution network. According to Alfris, “Distribution is a hard market to get into because the margins are not very high, and there is little money for equity or investment in it because you don’t need to build big factories. You don’t actually need very much money to do what you want to do – which means you’re not attractive to a lot of standard financiers.”[19] Since the slum dwellers needed the means or ability to purchase the solar products, Pollinate Energy decided to set up the distribution and came up with the idea of developing teams of microentrepreneurs known as “Pollinators” for their social business.

The Pollinators knew the language of the slum dwellers and could convince them to buy the products. Each Pollinator handled 20 slum communities in their home city [20]. The job trained Pollinators to develop entrepreneurial skills while enabling Pollinate Energy to get to know through these Pollinators how the company was making a difference to these communities. The company gave these microentrepreneurs stock on consignment. Each Pollinator had “Business in a Bag” comprising customer data, a smartphone and access to the products for their microbusiness to succeed. They also received a transportation allowance from Pollinate Energy. The company trained them to go door-to-door with their solar products, build relationships with the community members and educate them about the benefits of using solar energy products. The Pollinators also installed and serviced the products sold by them to the community.

The Pollinators offered their customers deferred payment plans, thus making the solar products accessible to everyone. Customers made the payment in installments over a period of one or two months depending on their financial ability [21]. Alexandra pointed out that the slum communities had small amounts of money for basic needs such as kerosene and food, but they could not save any money. Therefore, Pollinate Energy offered them small loans by taking the risk for a short time while they paid it back, after which they could save around US$100 a year [22]. According to Alexandra, most of the families repaid the loan. The company had a default rate of less than 1% [23].

The Pollinators did not just distribute the products but were also responsible for collecting and tracking payments for the solar lanterns. The company used Salesforce, cloud software which tracked the company’s sales across India. Pollinators tracked payments in the range of US$3 to US$10 in cash. Since most of the Pollinators had not finished school and had difficulty in reading, the app was used to meet their needs.

The company trained the Pollinators through a fellowship program. Each Pollinator was placed in a team with international fellows and Indian interns. Fellows were selected mainly from Australia – young applicants who had an interest in gaining hands-on experience in sustainable development. The interns were selected from a pool of students in India [24]. The Fellows trained the Pollinators in sales, financial literacy and customer relations. The intensive training equipped the Pollinators in terms of skills, confidence and community relationships, and this helped them to continue on their own and grow their business later. The interns helped the Pollinators with their accounting, sales and research for new tent communities. The groups scanned through Google Earth satellite images to find the tent homes of the urban slum dwellers. These coordinates were then plotted into their smartphones by the Pollinators, and in the evening, they visited the specific community when most of the workers returned home.

The company also used an app called “what3words” for mapping new slum communities. The app helped in breaking up the world’s total mass into 57 trillion 3 × 3 squares with each square being assigned unique three-word addresses [25]. After the Pollinators matched new consumers to a custom address, the location could be imported in the Salesforce Classic app. The Pollinators could store information about each consumer’s financial situation, family composition and electricity status. This data also helped Pollinators to approach new communities more easily.

While the Pollinator was the link selling products to the community members, Pollinate Energy also employed a worker bee – a member of the community who assisted the Pollinator in convincing consumers about the product and generating sales. The worker bee earned a commission for the assistance given to the Pollinators when any products were sold (See Exhibit 2 for Pollinate Energy’s business model).

Pollinators collected the weekly payment from these communities and deposited the money in their bank account set up by the company. For every solar light they sold, they received half of the profit, while the rest was used by the company to cover their operating costs. Pollinators were given incentives if they reached a monthly sales target. According to cofounder and chief operating officer (COO) of Pollinate Energy, Ben Merven (Merven) (he), “We focus primarily on maximising our social impact. Each successful sale is re-invested into the business. More importantly, it helps create a safer, cost-effective and more energy-efficient community for our customers”[25].

In December 2017, Pollinate Energy founded Pollinate Power LLP. This gave an opportunity to the Pollinators to get employment with a monthly salary and benefits. The Pollinators also had the option to develop their own business and continue as a franchise with Pollinate Energy, providing them ongoing business development support on request.

Recruiting Pollinators also helped Kimmorley and her team come out with more products needed by these communities. These were gravity-fed water filters, medicated mosquito nets and biodegradable sanitary napkins. The team at Pollinate Energy felt that a diverse product portfolio would ensure the long-term sustainability of the organization. According to McGregor, “Our Pollinators collect feedback about what products customers want. Different cities have different needs, and we’ve diversified our product line to reflect that, allowing us to increase our impact through our sales”[16].

Kimmorley observed that women from these marginalized communities did odd jobs and saved money to buy products such as kerosene. She felt that these women could also be employed by the company. Hence, the company recruited women from these slums as Pollinators, thereby giving them an opportunity to become entrepreneurs. Essential entrepreneurship skills were imparted to these women as part of their training by Pollinate Energy.

Initial hiccups

One of the first challenges Kimmorley faced lay in recruiting the Pollinators, as it was considered taboo for people to work in such communities. She and her team tackled this challenge by partnering with local organizations. For example, Pollinate Energy had a partnership with an non-governmental organization (NGO) that worked with SHGs in these communities, and they advertised their Pollinator positions to women in their SHGs [26].

Another significant challenge faced by the company was building trust with the community. Since the urban slum dwellers were uneducated and ignorant, they did not evince any interest in Kimmorley and her team when they showed them their solar lighting products and explained the benefits that came with them. According to Merven, the slum dwellers believed that they would just sell this solar product and then disappear, leaving them with a bad product. To tackle this challenge, the company sent its Pollinators to the community once a week so that they would get familiar with the community members. This fostered a sense of trust among the community members, making communication easier with them. Merven added that with solar lights, behavioral change was easy as their benefits could be demonstrated in comparison to kerosene lamps. The Pollinators also gave the solar lights to the communities to try for a week after they had made a down payment. If the slum dwellers were not satisfied with the product, they could return it after a week to the Pollinator, who would then refund the money. This gave the community a chance to understand the product and its benefits.

Merven also pointed out another challenge that they faced – selling cooking stoves was difficult as people were used to cooking on “chulas” (wooden stoves) that gave a particular flavor to the food. The women could not see any visible benefits in their cooking stoves compared to their chulas. This made it difficult for the Pollinators to sell the product. However, the company was doing research on how other people were selling the same thing in different parts of the world so that it could train its Pollinators to communicate the benefits of these products to the slum dwellers.

New beginnings for Kimmorley

Kimmorley planned to have many more businesses such as Pollinate Energy as she believed that simple solutions such as solar lights could be the answer to the twin problems of poverty and climate change. She added, “I realised that our business was very lucky. We had the same amount of growth as Uber, which launched the same year we did, because we had a disruptor model which was enabled by a mobile phone. And it was a need that needed to be served. What we really needed now was tens of thousands of businesses like ours” (Taylor-Kabbaz, 2021).

In 2016, Kimmorley left for Australia as she had been appointed as Associate Director of the Innovation Fund at the CEFC. She believed that her new role at the Innovation Fund would help her make an impact on an even larger scale. Though she was stepping into the corporate world, she stated that her heart would always be entrepreneurial. Kimmorley added, “I will always be an entrepreneur. As long as we are growing a cleaner and greener future, then I’ll be happy to get up and go to work every morning” [27].

Pollinate energy merges with empower generation

While Kimmorley was connected with Pollinate Energy in a nonexecutive role, her cofounders were making efforts to expand the company. In 2018, Pollinate Energy merged with EG, a not-for-profit organization founded by Anya Cherneff (Cherneff), Bennett Cohen (Cohen) and EG’s Nepal-based partner Kalpavriksha Greater Goods (KGG) founded by Sita Adhikari (Adhikari) (See Exhibit 3 for a brief note on EG). EG offered clean energy solutions to rural areas of Nepal in a bid to alleviate poverty, reduce carbon emissions and improve health.

Like Pollinate Energy, EG’s business model aimed at empowering rural women who were disproportionately affected by energy poverty. The company gave women from the rural households some solar lights and cooking stoves to start their own businesses and also trained the women to become entrepreneurs (See Exhibit 4 for benefits of the merger for Pollinate Energy).

Commenting that the merger would enable Pollinate Group to reach the rural communities in India, Alexandra said, “One exciting development for India will be adopting Empower Generation’s rural-based sales approach. This will allow us to reach remote families who are currently missing out on accessing our life-changing products. Together, we will reach millions faster and more efficiently and be better placed to empower women to play a central role in the development of their communities and their families. This is critical when our model still currently relies on the support of generous donors to support our growth” [28].

Since Pollinate Energy was facing problems in India while recruiting women as Pollinators, the merged entity, Pollinate Group, adopted Nepal’s approach and recruited women from the slums for selling low-cost product lines on their own time, and that too from the comfort of their homes. EG recruited women microentrepreneurs, known as Suryamukhis (meaning Sunflower), to sell their clean energy products. These women were not part of Pollinate Group; they purchased products on credit from the company and sold these to people in the slum communities. They then repaid Pollinate Group the cost of the product while retaining the profit margin for themselves. In case the Suryamukhis were unable to sell those products, Pollinate Group took them back at no cost. After the merged entity adopted EG’s women microentrepreneur model, Pollinate Group’s women-led network in India grew by 270% in comparison to 2018 [28].

The benefits

Solar lights offered several benefits to the marginalized communities. According to McGregor, “Women report being able to work longer hours and earn extra income because they don’t have to come home before dark to cook. Children study more thanks to the brighter light. The benefits are intergenerational” [16].

There were environmental benefits too. As of 2019, the emission of 88,100 tonnes of CO2 was prevented as the Pollinate Group replaced kerosene lights with solar lights (See Exhibit 5 for key statistics of Pollinate Group) [29].

For the financial year January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019, Pollinate Group recorded revenues of US$1.8m (See Exhibit 6 for Pollinate Group’s financials). Pollinate Energy and EG were recognized from among several organizations for their clean energy solutions (See Exhibit 7 for Awards for Pollinate Group).

The challenges

Though Pollinate Group had scaled up by setting up its business model in six Indian cities – Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Tumkur, Kolkata, Lucknow and Kanpur – and in Nepal, in cities such as Kailali – Bardiya and Chitwan, it could not expand much because of its business model which was funded by corporate social responsibility initiatives and philanthropic activities.

In June 2020, Pollinate Group received a US$1.47m contract from the Dutch Government Agency Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland or The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) for its solar lights. Under the contract, the company would receive US$28 for each solar light it would sell from 2020 to 2023, totalling US$1.47m in contract sales [30]. However, Pollinate Group did not have funds to purchase materials from its suppliers. Nonprofit organization University Impact [31] (UI) offered it grants which the company could use to fulfill this contract. According to UI, Pollinate Group had a very efficient business model which could be making profits, but instead, it was training women entrepreneurs to distribute its clean energy products to empower these women, and this added to the cost of the company. UI suggested that the company could use the grant money and give the products for free since the company was serving the poorest of the poor consumers rather than have Pollinators for distribution.

Pollinate Group acknowledged that though the company earned a margin of 27% on its products for the year 2019, it had suffered losses as it spent money on training its women entrepreneurs and on giving them commissions when they sold their products. Commenting on its unit economics, Pollinate Group said, “Yes, we acknowledge and have been aware that our unit economics can be improved, this is what we started addressing in early 2020, and an investment in Pollinate at this time would allow us to continue to address this critical area. However, our impact is not simply measured by the number of products we distribute; an investment in Pollinate is an investment in the potential of 200+ current women entrepreneurs, future entrepreneurs and all of their customers” [31].

Looking ahead

By providing sustainable energy solutions, Pollinate Group aimed to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of gender equality, access to affordable clean energy and providing job opportunities and sustainable economic growth (See Exhibit 8 for United Nations SDGs addressed by Pollinate Group).

In January 2020, Pollinate Group appointed Ramani as their new CEO after Alexandra resigned from the post. Commenting on the appointment of Ramani, Alexandra said, “This is a pivotal moment for Pollinate Group and our sector, and I’m thrilled we have found such an impressive leader in Sujatha. I know she is committed and passionate about empowering women and communities scaling the Pollinate Group model, and I have the utmost confidence that she will do this and more” [32].

Ramani shared Kimmorley’s vision of empowering poor women. She said, “These women needn’t have any kind of qualifications apart from having the passion to do the best with their life. We provide them with opportunities so that they can make a dignified livelihood, independently (Mathew, 2021).” The company planned to work with 10,000 women and impact about 10 million lives by providing access to clean energy and about 1.5 million clean-energy products by 2025 (Mathew, 2021). Going forward, Ramani faced the challenge of scaling up the company while financially empowering women micro-entrepreneurs from poor communities.

Notes

1.

“Pollinate Energy,” www.chivas.com, 2016.

2.

“Let there be Light,” www.abc.net.au, May 26, 2015.

3.

“Pollinate Group Impact Snapshot,” https://pollinategroup.org, December 2019.

4.

The World Bank is an international financial institution that offers loans to developing countries. The major goal of the bank is to alleviate poverty.

5.

“Poverty,” https://pollinategroup.org, 2019.

6.

“Household Air Pollution and Health,” www.who.int, May 8, 2018.

7.

Bengaluru is the capital city of the southern Indian state of Karnataka.

8.

“Pollinating Social Entrepreneurship in India,” https://blogs.lse.ac.uk, February 20, 2014.

9.

Founded in 2012, CEFC is a Green Bank owned by the Australian Government and was formed for facilitating increased financial flow into the clean energy sector.

10.

“Turning the Lights on,” www.magzter.com

11.

“A Cleaner Greener Future,” https://fpa.com.au, April 2018.

12.

As of August 4, 2021, US$1 = INR 74.15.

13.

“Profile: Pollinate Energy,” www.innovationpolicyplatform.org, June 2017.

14.

Greenlight Planet is a for-profit social business which designs, distributes and finances solar energy products.

15.

BCorp certified means that its customers are aware that the company has public transparency and legal accountability, that it balances profit and purpose, and has met the highest standards of environmental and social performance.

16.

Shahzad Billimoria, “Towards a Brighter Future,” https://aim2flourish.com

17.

Solar Sister is a Uganda-based organization which aims to build an Africa-wide network of women clean energy entrepreneurs.

18.

Founded in 1996 by Bangladesh-based microfinance organization Grameen Bank, Grameen Shakti is a not-for-profit organization which provides clean energy technology with affordable finance to poor consumers.

19.

“Seven Women Entrepreneurs of Solar Energy,” www.iea.org, November 2019.

20.

“Pollinate Energy India Pvt Ltd., India,” www.startup-energy-transition.com

21.

“2013-14 Annual Report Improving the Lives of the Urban Poor,” https://pollinategroup.org, December 2019.

22.

“Pollinate Energy: Moving from Energy Poverty into the Light,” www.socialtraders.com.au, November 14, 2015.

23.

“Tackling Energy Poverty with Pollinate Energy, SET 2018 Finalist,” www.startup-energy-transition.com, May 4, 2018.

24.

After Pollinate Energy merged with EG in 2018, Pollinate Group recruited interns from Nepal as well as EG had its operations in Nepal.

25.

“Salesforce helps Pollinate Energy to Light up India,” www.salesforce.org

26.

“Pollinate Energy, Providing Clean Energy Products to Slum Communities,” www.inclusivebusiness.net

27.

“Towards a Cleaner, Greener Future,” https://fpa.com.au, May 15, 2018.

28.

“Stronger Together: Pollinate Energy merges with Empower Generation,” https://pollinategroup.org, May 1, 2018.

29.

“2019 Annual Report People behind the Movement,” https://pollinategroup.org, June 2020.

30.

“Due Diligence - Grants,” www.uitripledaf.org, June 4, 2020.

31.

University Impact is a Provo, Utah-based nonprofit which makes investments in nonprofits and companies solving social and environmental issues.

32.

“Media Release: Pollinate Group Announces Sujatha Ramani as new CEO,” https://pollinategroup.org, January 14, 2020.

33.

“Pollinate Energy Annual Report 2017-2018,” https://pollinategroup.org, December 2019.

34.

As of August 4, 2021, US$1 = AUD 1.35.

35.

“Tackling Energy Poverty with Pollinate Energy, SET 2018 Finalist,” www.startup-energy-transition.com, May 4, 2018.

36.

Started in 1999, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor is the largest annual survey of entrepreneurial dynamics in the world.

37.

www.LeanIn.Org is a nonprofit organization helping women achieve their objectives.

38.

At Emory University (Atlanta-based private research university), the entrepreneurship database program leverages relationship with several accelerator programs for collecting systematic data from entrepreneurs applying and participating in accelerator programs.

39.

“Impact Assessment Report 2020,” https://pollinategroup.org, 2020.

40.

As of January 29, 2022, US$1 = INR 75.

41.

“Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: A Mirage,” p. 4, https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu, July 2006.

42.

“What is a Social Entrepreneur,” www.ashoka.org

43.

“Mergers and Acquisitions: Key Considerations for Social Enterprises,” https://redfworkshop.org

References

Mathew, A.A. (2021), “This social enterprise is improving livelihoods and empowering women with clean-energy products”, available at: https://yourstory.com (accessed 16 April 2021).

Rao, V. (2018), “Social enterprise pollinate energy has provided 20,000 urban poor families with affordable, green energy”, available at: www.yourstory.com (accessed 31 January 2018).

Taylor-Kabbaz, A. (2021), “Lighting the way to global change, clean energy and climate action”, available at: www.wellbeing.com.au (accessed 25 February 2021).

Figures

Sun King Solar Light Specifications
Sun King Pro 2x Mobile chargers; 15x brighter than kerosene; 36 h single charge
Sun King Pro Mobile charger; 10x brighter than kerosene; 30 h single charge
Sun King Mobile Mobile charger; 8x brighter than kerosene; 36 h single charge
Sun King Solo 5x brighter than kerosene; 24 h single charge
Sun King Eco 2x brighter than kerosene; 30 h single charge

Source: “Pollinate Energy Impact Assessment Report – Solar Lights,” https://pollinategroup.org, May 2014

Impact statistics 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015
Total people reached per year* 113,935 79,730 56,455 74,239 217,103
Woman trained as entrepreneurs per year 330 89 62 20 12
Total products distributed per year 44,423 27,374 13,090 13,082 42,900
Cumulative CO2 emissions (tonnes) saved by replacing kerosene** 88,100 63,350 45,510 41,574 37,638
$ customers saved per year replacing kerosene with solar light 8,600,500 5,350, 000 3,052,500 3,117,500 2,880,853
Notes:

*In 2015, Nepal witnessed a devastating earthquake that involved an emergency response where the Nepal network distributed a high number of solar lights. Also, some products impacted one person, while others impacted everyone in the household. Refer to our impact assessments for calculations. ** Calculated by the replacement of kerosene with solar lights. Based on a seven-year maintenance free life cycle for solar products. The calculation does not include emissions saved from LED bulbs, clean cookstoves and other efficient household appliances distributed via our network

Source: “2019 Annual Report People behind the Movement,” https://pollinategroup.org, June 2020

Particulars 2019 2018
Revenue and other income
Revenue from contracts with customers 556,462 496,173
Other revenue 1, 285,603 725,787
Other income 27,435
1, 869,500 1, 221,960
Less: expenses
Materials and consumables used (460,565) (395,542)
Depreciation and amortization expenses (10,343) (7,884)
Employee benefits expense (696,866) (549,692)
Occupancy expense (86,829) (83,010)
Advertising expense (24,393) (30,024)
Finance costs (10,024) (15,059)
Travel expense (4,239) (22,019)
Fellow hosting costs (14,024) (9,436)
Insurance expense (3,196) (4,515)
Administration expense (5,516) (7,661)
Professional fees (225,731) (10,744)
Other expenses (204,551) (196,825)
(1,746,458) (1,332,411)
Surplus/(deficit) before income tax expense 123,042 (110,451)
Other comprehensive income
Items that may be reclassified subsequently to profit and loss
Foreign exchange translation of Pollinate Energy India Pvt Ltd 12,626 (8,326)
Foreign exchange translation of Pollinate Group (USA) 188
12,814 (8,346)
Other comprehensive income for the year 12,814 (8,346)
Total comprehensive income 135,856 (118,797)

Source: “2019 Annual Report People behind the Movement,” https://pollinategroup.org, June 2020

Year Award
2013 Pollinate Energy won the United Nations Environment Programa (UNEP) SEED (Low Carbon) Award for social and environmental enterprises focusing on mitigation and adaptation to climate change
The United Nations recognized the Pollinate Energy initiative as one of the “Lighthouse Activities” under the Momentum for Change initiative. The company was appreciated for being the most practical, scalable and replicable example of what people, governments, businesses and industries were doing for tackling climate change
2014 Kimmorley won the LSE student entrepreneur of the year
2015 Cherneff won the Clean Energy Education and Empowerment Initiative award in the International Leadership category. The award recognizes outstanding leadership and extraordinary achievements of mid-career women working to advance clean energy
2016 Pollinate Energy received the Ethical Enterprise Award from Moral Ground, which recognizes enterprises for innovative and ethical practices delivering positive social and economic impacts
2017 Cherneff and Adhikari (as a cofounder of EG) won the International Ashden Award for Clean Energy for Women and Girls. Ashden Awards recognized innovative organizations in the field of sustainable energy
2018 Pollinate Energy received the Keeling Curve Prize for improving access to low-cost, zero emission energy in underdeveloped nations
2019 Pollinate Group received the Global Energy Awards, which recognize corporate and individual innovation, leadership, and superior performance in several categories which spanned the entire energy value chain
Note:

Compiled from various sources. aThe UNEP takes the responsibility of coordinating the responses to environmental issues within the United Nations

Exhibit 1. Pollinate Energy’s solar products range

Table E1

Exhibit 2. Pollinate Energy’s business model

Figure E1

Exhibit 3

A brief note on EG

EG was founded in 2011 by Anya Cherneff (Cherneff) (she) with her husband Bennett Cohen (Cohen) (he) and Sita Adhikari (Adhikari) (she). In 2005, Cherneff completed her degree in anthropology from Columbia, and in 2010, she earned her Master’s in International Human Rights from the University of Denver. During this time, she worked for the Coalition Against Trafficking Clinic. She also founded and served as an associate director of the Human Trafficking Clinic. This encouraged her to identify ways to help women find stable and value-adding jobs since they were vulnerable to traffickers.

During the same time, Cohen was making efforts to enable huge adoption of clean technologies in developing countries. In 2011, Cherneff and Cohen met Adhikari in Nepal, who ran a microfinance cooperative, but had plans to start a business employing women in her community. EG provided start-up capital to help Adhikari launch Kalpavriksha Greater Goods, a wholesale distributor. According to Adhikari, “Kalpavriksha is an example of Empower Generation’s success. It established a business model in Nepal giving ownership to local people, which is different from many of the other international organizations whose local partners disappear once they leave the country” [33].

Cherneff and Cohen, along with Adhikari, decided to provide clean energy solutions to rural consumers while enabling women to be clean energy entrepreneurs. According to Cherneff and her cofounders, women in poor and rural households were the ones who suffered the most from energy poverty. They spent a disproportionate amount of time in getting fuel, sometimes traveling long distances, which left them vulnerable to violence along the way. Women and girls also suffered from health problems as they cooked using kerosene or charcoal, which exposed them to indoor pollution. Thus, in 2011, EG was formed. The company offered low-interest loans to the rural consumers to buy its clean energy products.

As of December 2017, EG had distributed over 57,000 clean energy products, helping save rural families in Nepal more than AUD [34] 2,737,000 in household energy expenses and reducing 12,861 tonnes of CO2 emissions by replacing kerosene and candles. For the same period, i.e. as of December 2017, the company had made an impacted on the lives of 294,626 people by offering them with clean energy and cooking stoves [35].

Source: Compiled from various sources

Exhibit 4

Benefits of the merger for Pollinate Energy

With this merger, Pollinate Energy aimed to:

  • Expand its global reach by providing clean energy products to millions of consumers living in poverty in India and Nepal;

  • Achieve financial and operational sustainability. Financially the company would benefit by providing consulting and licensing services. Operationally, Pollinate Energy would be able to streamline processes, its supply chain, sales force recruitment and leadership, and data collection and analysis;

  • Create better support to its Pollinators, such as getting access to international professional development opportunities, giving them a chance to join the global distribution network and offering improved service and marketing support and a new three-tier sales skills development program;

  • Enable women to succeed as leaders in their communities as well as in the organization by getting access to the best in-class diversity and inclusion practice; and

  • Bring more power to the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) consumers through EG’s rural-based approach that would be adopted by their Pollinators for reaching consumers residing in remote areas.

Source: Adapted from “Stronger Together: Pollinate Energy Merges with Empower Generation,” https://pollinategroup.org, May 1, 2018.

Exhibit 5. Pollinate group’s key statistics

Table E2

Exhibit 6. Pollinate group’s financials

Table E3

Exhibit 7. Pollinate group awards

Table E4

Exhibit 8

United Nations SDGs Addressed by Pollinate Group

SDG Target 1.4: “By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance”

SDG Target 5.4: “Recognise and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate”

Pollinate Group addressed this target by giving women business skills training, inventory on credit, and in-field mentoring, enabling them to have the products, knowledge and confidence needed to start their own businesses.

SDG Target 5.5: “Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision making in political, economic and public life”

Pollinate Group, a female-led organization, had a woman CEO and a female staff of 57%.

SDG Target 7.1: “By 2030, ensure universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services”

Pollinate Group had been providing access to sustainable energy to people living in marginalized communities ever since it had started. By June 2020, the company had sold 106,819* solar lanterns across India and Nepal.

*Pollinate Group’s Salesforce data.

Source: “Pollinate Group Impact Assessment Report 2020,” https://pollinategroup.org, December 2020.

Acknowledgements

Disclaimer. This case is intended to be used as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a management situation. The case was compiled from published sources.

Corresponding author

Sanjib Dutta can be contacted at: sanjibdutta@icmrindia.org

About the authors

Hadiya Faheem is based at Case Research Center, ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad, India.

Sanjib Dutta is based at Case Research Center, ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad, India.

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