Enterprise Financing Journey: Green Heat
Published: 18 June 2020
Green Heat (SEED Low Carbon Award Winner 2014) provides innovative and cost-effective energy, waste and fertiliser solutions for homes, schools, farms and commercial buildings in Kampala, Uganda. The core business model is the conversion of waste to biofuel through biogas digesters, and the production of briquettes from waste. Read more
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Enterprise Financing Journey: Khainza Energy
Published: 18 June 2020
Khainza Energy (SEED Low Carbon Award Winner 2018) is committed to transform organic waste into clean, safe, and affordable cooking fuel and to provide this renewable energy solutions to Ugandans. It is an innovative circular economy business that obtains organic waste from smallholder farms and local households for processing and refinement into high-purity methane. Read more
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Enterprise Financing Journey: Village Energy
Published: 18 June 2020
Village Energy (SEED Africa Award Winner 2015) provides lasting solar solutions to institutions and households, through providing customised systems and specialised after sales servicing and repair in Kampala, Uganda. Village Energy recruits and trains technicians to build a regional servicing, distribution and supply chain network.
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Filling the Missing Middle Financing Gap | Scoping Paper, Indonesia 2020
Published: 08 May 2020 Maggie Sloan, Net Pornlumon Nirachatsuwan
This scoping paper provides the basis for the implementation of the collaborative, multi-step process of the SEED Practitioner Labs Climate Finance in Indonesia in 2020. Indonesia’s richness in biodiversity and vibrant landscape of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) present a significant opportunity for the country to meet its development objectives while reducing its climate impacts and improving climate resilience across sectors. In particular, climate-smart SMEs – offering products and services for climate change adaptation and/or mitigation – are well positioned to absorb and scale the environmental, social and economic impacts of global climate finance flows in line with Indonesia’s climate action objectives. Read more
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Digital Innovation for Eco-Inclusive Enterprises
Published: 30 March 2020 Khawla Rammali, Linde Wolters, Sonya Ong
Digital innovation is a great way to accelerate social, environmental and economic transformation, for enterprises to tackle challenges such as climate change, food security, gender equality, and scale-up solutions more quickly through technology. Read more
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SEED Congratulates Seven Malawi Enterprises on their Latest Success
Published: 28 February 2020
Seven of our SEED Malawi eco-inclusive enterprises - Chonona, Green Impact Technologies, Green Ventures, Honey Products, Hortinet, Inte Waste and Ziweto – were recently able to raise funds that will help them scale-up and achieve their full growth potential. Read more
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Bottom-up Solutions to the Climate Emergency: Three Innovative, Eco-Inclusive Enterprises Take a Local Approach
Linde Wolters / Marlena Kiefl / Khawla Rammali Source: Next Billion
The threat of climate change exacerbates already existing inequalities, and increases the urgency of the need for resilient communities. But building this resilience presents a complex challenge: How can the world’s most marginalized communities effectively pursue growth, work toward the Sustainable Development Goals and overcome climate-related crises – while involving the rural households, women and youth who are most affected by climate change? Read more
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SOLFIN: Affordable Lease-to-Own Financing for Solar System | Climate Finance, Ghana 2019
Published: 27 January 2020 Kathrin Kirsch, Marlena Kiefl
SOLFIN is a climate finance product that targets SMEs in the solar energy sector and supports them to provide affordable solar systems through enabling a lease-to-own financing model. Thereby, SOLFIN addresses the lack of high upfront investments for solar technologies by enabling solar technology providers to offer solar systems complemented by the necessary finance product. In this way, reasonable interest rates and longer tenors can be offered to SMEs, end-users and households. Read more
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SEED Malawi National Dialogue Forum 2019
Published: 12 December 2019
Brought together around 130+ entrepreneurs, policymakers, financial institutions, business development service providers and others to celebrate the journeys of eco-inclusive enterprises and collaboratively mobilise support for building the capacities of socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable entrepreneurship in Southern Africa. Read more
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Equity plug for energy efficiency financing: Direct lending model for SMEs | Climate Finance, South Africa 2019
Published: 24 November 2019 Maggie Sloan
This model for energy efficiency financing for SMEs “plugs the gap” with equity by generating a paradigm shift in commercial banks through market, technology and supplier engagement and systematic technical assistance. Read more
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Climate-Smart Impact Investment Fund: Extending capital to SMEs in emerging markets | Climate Finance, South Africa 2019
Published: 24 November 2019 Maggie Sloan
The solution for an Impact Investment Fund for Climate-Smart Entrepreneurial Solutions brings together networks of active impact investors and potential future investors to deliver equity to climate-smart SMEs in their efforts to reach commercial scale. Read more
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Green Lend: Inclusive credit risk assessment across value chains | Climate Finance, South Africa 2019
Published: 24 November 2019 Maggie Sloan
This credit risk assessment mechanism aims to increase lending to climate-smart SMEs through risk scorecard development that incorporates alternative data across enterprise value chains. Read more
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Off-grid renewable energy private-public partnership model: Improving market access and affordable technology financing | Policy, Malawi 2019
Published: 13 November 2019 Alina Weiss, Maggie Sloan, Marlena Kiefl
his private-public partnership model furthers the electrification of (rural) Malawi by engaging technology suppliers, financiers and government around eco-inclusive enterprises offering off-grid renewable energy solutions and delivering capacity building for integrated distribution networks and targeted clean energy financing solutions. Read more
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Looking Beyond the Known: Changing Mindsets through Design-Led Entrepreneurial Solutions
Published: 31 October 2019 Maggie Sloan
Ms Kasturi, Founder of Daily Dump (SEED Low Carbon Award Winner 2018), was welcomed as keynote speaker during the BEYOND THE KNOWN: Practitioners’ Exchange to Discover New Ways to Promote Entrepreneurship & Support MSME Development from 15-16th October at the GIZ Representation in Berlin. Read more
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Meet the SEED Awards 2019 Winners & Finalists
Published: 24 October 2019
Tackling poverty and climate change, generating employment opportunities and contributing to economic development, this year’s 14 SEED Award winners were selected from over nine hundred applicants and were recognised for solutions to major local and global challenges. Read more
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The SEED Awards 2019 highlight the contribution of green and social enterprises to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals
Published: 24 October 2019
Lilongwe, Malawi, Berlin, Germany, 24 October 2019 - Tackling poverty and climate change, generating employment opportunities and contributing to economic development, this year’s 14 SEED Award winners were selected from over 900 applicants and were recognised for solutions to major local and global challenges. Read more
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Incentivising activity in the biomass sector | Policy, South Africa 2019
Published: 21 October 2019 Camilla Shearman, Julia Haack
This policy prototype looks to the biomass-to-energy value chain to pilot a mechanism that will catalyse sound decision-making in the biomass sector, leading to the implementation of sustainable invasive alien clearing, harvesting and biomass utilisation projects that connect to well-supported energy markets. In order to address the challenges that small and medium businesses in this sector currently face, the prototype involves setting up a knowledge-sharing platform to provide value chain specific information, biomass to energy case studies, and information on how to navigate regulatory frameworks, policy and fiscal incentives. Read more
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Building healthier communities with Khainza Energy
Published: 18 September 2019 Linde Wolters, Sonya Ong
“Khainza” is a reference to a small person with high energy and ability. It is also Arthur Woniala, the founder's, mother’s maiden name. Khainza Energy is committed to providing clean, safe, and affordable cooking fuel solutions to Ugandans. We caught up with Arthur to hear how SEED Support has helped change his business & what Khainza is up to these days. Read more
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Sanedi signs contract with SolarTurtle to develop next-gen solar kiosks
Schalk Burger Source: Engineering News
The South African National Energy Development Institute (Sanedi), the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and community empowerment solar photovoltaic (PV) product developer SolarTurtle have signed a contract to develop the next-generation SolarTurtle solar energy kiosk, called the BabyTurtle. Read more
Syndicate for Renewable Energy Infrastructure Financing | Climate Finance, Uganda 2018
Published: 09 July 2019 Alina Weiss, Maggie Sloan
The syndicate for renewable energy infrastructure financing solution contracts a community of interested debt and equity lenders to finance household RE projects. It enables and leverages syndication effects to increase the number of new financial partnerships, raise debt in the RE sector and multiply returns on investments. Investors are legally bound in the syndicate, which finances RE infrastructure projects based on comprehensive project analysis, due diligence and evaluation. High ROI potential projects receive financing through insurance, blended financing or otherwise, depending on the financing service offerings of member financiers. The syndicate supports RE infrastructure projects to plan project implementation and schedules payments accordingly. Read more
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Irrigation System Microleasing for High-Value Crops | Climate Finance, Uganda 2018
Published: 08 July 2019 Alina Weiss, Maggie Sloan
The irrigation system microleasing for high-value crops solution mitigates investment risks for both farmers and financial institutions. The irrigation system financing model directs financing for climate-smart irrigation technologies through technology providers to agribusinesses that produce (or have the potential to produce) commercial crops that generate higher profits at market. The financing mechanism for irrigation systems engages the private sector to maximise returns on investment in productive farm assets (specifically irrigation) in the agriculture sector. Read more
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Lighting up rural South Africa with SolarTurtle
Published: 21 June 2019 Linde Wolters, Sonya Ong
Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, James Van der Walt tell us how being on a ferry in Ireland and a monastery in New Zealand inspired the founding of his eco-inclusive business idea. These days, they’re busy with SANEDI working on developing Baby Turtles which would be smaller, cheaper versions of their original prototype. Read more
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From waste to wealth: the story of alternative fuel enterprise BioAfriq
Published: 20 June 2019 Linde Wolters, Sonya Ong
We caught up with BioAfriq founders and SEED Starter alumni Doreen Achieng Ochieng-Ivisu and James Nyamai, the husband and wife who recently were selected to join the Kenya Acceleration Programme 2019 by CIC Kenya. Their story started when they realised the damage charcoal was doing to their country, where tree cover is at only 3%. In this catch-up, they talk about separating their private from their business life, the difficulty of changing farmer mindsets and why BioAfriq is here to stay. Read more
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Cool clean tech to tackle climate change
Source: Green Times
As showcased during the SEED South Africa Symposium 2019, South African entrepreneurs are taking climate change seriously: Water filters made from macadamia nut shells, a mobile solar-powered kiosk for charging phones in off-grid areas, vegetable growing systems using recycled plastic bags, and a machine that turns any type of waste into energy (gas) or diesel. Read more
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SANEDI & SolarTurtle develop next generation of green enterprises for grassroots communities
SolarTurtle Source: SA Innovation Summit
The South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI) has partnered with the Department of Science and Technologies (DST), and SolarTurtle to development the next generation SolarTurtle solar energy kiosks – The BabyTurtle. Read more
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