Team Description

Akan Energy: Akan Energy intends to set up a distributed network of locally-owned biofuel production facilities in rural villages throughout Ghana.  The model is premised upon the use of jatropha oil as a substitute for imported kerosene. 

Banque pour Tous: We will offer basic banking services to the largely un-banked population of West Africa using their existing mobile handsets. Banking services through texting capabilities of cell phones.  Target is Mali, although already pioneered in South Africa, Kenya and Congo, but not in West Africa.  Designed for individuals who have limited access to traditional banks because they are too far, too intimidating or too costly.  Most people have to carry cash for small business/farming operations which is dangerous.

Build Your Own Village (BYOV): A web-based reproduction of a needy village is made, onto which donors can drag-and-drop icons representing gifts. The real gift is then delivered to the village so that while a virtual village is being built online, a real one is being built offline. The plan will enable donors to allocate money to a direct cause and see the results of the donation first-hand.

Embrace Global: Embrace is a for-profit social venture that plans to sells affordable infant incubators at less than 1% of the commercial product. The incubator incorporates a phase change material into a sleeping bag-like design that uses no electricity, is culturally sensitive, and intuitive to use.  We created a working prototype for $25 and plan to launch the product in rural areas of Nepal where these avoidable deaths occur.

Help for Malaria, Songre pour le Paludisme: Help for Malaria, Songre pour le Paludisme will provide free Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs) and sell inexpensive combination drug regimens in Burkina Faso. Our products and services will include training of 56 community health care workers.

International Leadership Academy of Ethiopia: International Leadership Academy of Ethiopia (ILAE) will nurture and develop the next generation of young leaders by offering them top notch education in a unique learning environment. ILAE will create a high quality tuition based school for children of expatriates and high income Ethiopians as well as bright scholarship funded underprivileged students recruited throughout the country.

KAITE-Social Investment in Zimbabwe: A holistic concept encompassing integrated economic, social and cultural development through social investment. KAITE aims to train and empower small local farmers in Zimbabwe to organically produce high quality, specialty products for market in tandem with productivity-enhancing food staples. KAITE seeks to establish a sustainable model for agricultural practices that benefit the producer, community, and environment. The initiative also supports regional social programs in education and healthcare.  KAITE will foster local economic development, increase the country's exports, improve education, and create healthier agricultural environment in Zimbabwe.

PRIME- Powering Rural India by Micro: To tap into $1.8 billion rural electrification market in India, we plan to setup 1MW power plants which will run on woodstems of Casuarina Equistifolia, grown on wasteland. We will generate 29% IRR while providing electricity & employment to villages

Rabuor Sunflower Farm: Our business concept focuses on an emerging sunflower oil women’s cooperative based in the village of Rabuor, Kenya.  Our aim is to maximize the activities that are already taking place, as well as to create a strategic plan for regional and international market expansion. 

Smart Start Birth Kits: Empowering Women, Delivering Health: Our company intends to reduce neonatal infection incidence by selling one-time use birth kits to pregnant women for use by their traditional birth attendant during delivery. A kit contains all the equipment commonly needed for safe, clean delivery.

Slag Bloc, Ltd.: Plans to make a type of construction masonry unit similar to the concrete block, but instead of utilizing limited natural resources, Slag Bloc plans to make use of the industrial waste product steel slag which is available in large quantities.  The product has the same industrial characteristics as concrete blocks, without the negative environmental impacts and provides a good solution for dealing with some of the waste by product of steel manufacturing.   Construction projects abound in the Caribbean and supply cannot keep up with demand for building materials. 

Solar Light Delivery Solutions (SOLIDS) - by Solar Reach: SOLIDS aims to bring light to millions in darkness through the production of solar lamps accessible & affordable through daily rental scheme. Bring light to people who live with no access to electricity.  In the short term the company will  provide solar energy lamps and create opportunities for entrepreneurs to start rental businesses.  Solar lamps will bring extra hours of daylight for people to continue to work and children to study, while decreasing the use of expensive and highly polluting kerosene lamps.  Initial market is India, but growth worldwide.

Two Wheeled Foundation, Inc.: Innovative bicycle business start-up service which improves access to basic health care in rural African villages. The plan will address issue of poor road infrastructure and inability to purchase motorized transport with a sustainable two wheeled solution.

WaterPLUS: WaterPLUS is designing affordable technology which will revolutionize water disinfection for developing communities by employing Ultraviolet– Light Emitting Diodes (UV-LEDs) radiation at point-of-use water treatment.  LEDs are cheaper, require less energy, consume less space, and are less toxic to the environment when retired than other UV radiation technologies. Home based-water treatment is one of the “10 cheap ways to save the world” by Johns Hopkins Public Health Magazine, 2005.  The market is 220 million households that lack access to safe water, and the goal is to create a product that can sell for approximately $10 per unit.

WTR Compost: WTR corporation employs microorganism technology to biodegrade the organic waste and to convert it into quality organic compost under appropriate aerobic conditions. The WTR compost is richer in organic matters and nutrients than traditional fertilizer, and its full-scale and balanced types of elements and nutrients make it more stable in supplying and more lasting in effects than the fertilizer. Furthermore, the WTR compost contains some essential elements that the fertilizer lacks, for example: amino acids, proteins, carbohydrates, fats, etc.  WTR will reduce waste pollution and waste sent to incineration and landfills. Additional social benefits include profits made from improvement on productivity and increased employee income taxes as well as tax dollars saved when WTR employees reduce their dependence on public assistance and other government-supported services. WTR Environmental Investment Corporation, as China’s leading provider of environmental management services, is committed to offering a comprehensive range of environmental solutions to industries, specializing in waste collection, waste treatment, and waste-to-resource procession.