{"id":37684,"date":"2023-10-20T14:51:42","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/the-venture-winning-startup-pollinate-is-using-its-power-for-good-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:51:42","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:51:42","slug":"the-venture-winning-startup-pollinate-is-using-its-power-for-good-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/the-venture-winning-startup-pollinate-is-using-its-power-for-good-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"The Venture winning startup Pollinate is using its power for good – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An Australian startup\u2019s plan to light up India\u2019s poorest communities with solar power has outshone its competitors for the chance to compete at a global pitching competition next year.<\/p>\n

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Pollinate Energy<\/a>, which sells sustainable solar lights to India\u2019s urban areas, won Chivas Regal\u2019s The Venture<\/a> competition last week and will now compete against 27 other finalists in New York next June.<\/p>\n

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\"The_Venture_-_Top_5_finalists\" <\/p>\n

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Pollinate co-founder Emma Colenbrander says the company\u2019s co-founders were shocked into action after seeing the hardships faced by a town without electricity on the outskirts of Bangalore.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt basically means life is a lot harder and everything has to be done before the sun goes down,\u201d Colenbrander  tells StartupSmart<\/i>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey can\u2019t see each other\u2019s faces, women can\u2019t cook and do household chores, children can\u2019t study, can\u2019t socialise.\u201d<\/p>\n

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She also said the absence of electric light means rats and snakes aren\u2019t deterred from invading the community\u2019s makeshift homes.<\/p>\n

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Powerless communities<\/b><\/p>\n


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The problem extends throughout India where as many as 400 million people live in energy poverty. More than 1 billion people worldwide are in the same, vulnerable situation.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe urban slums we work with are very marginalised, very neglected, they\u2019re not recognised by the government,\u201d Colenbrander says.<\/p>\n

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After existing solar power providers told the Pollinate team the communities were \u201ctoo high risk\u201d to help, they decided to go it alone.<\/p>\n

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The social enterprise trains local salespeople to sell lights door-to-door, and offers a payment plan so for families who can\u2019t immediately afford to buy the product.<\/p>\n

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She says her company was also dedicated to servicing their products, which all come with a two-year guarantee.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen with a lot of charities, who come into un-electrified areas and dump a whole lot of products, is they don\u2019t follow up,\u201d Colenbrander says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt makes people not trust the product and also means they end up living in the dark again.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Step in the right direction<\/b><\/p>\n


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Before launching Pollinate Energy, Colenbrander worked for AusAID and was part of the Department of Foreign Affairs\u2019 innovation hub.<\/p>\n

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She says Canberra\u2019s recent commitment to Australia\u2019s innovation scene is exciting, as is the country\u2019s burgeoning social enterprise sector.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s really great that we\u2019re starting to talk the talk,\u201d she says<\/p>\n

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Pollinate is also doing its part to nurture future entrepreneurs by running volunteer programs for students and young professionals to work with them in India and learn about social enterprise.<\/p>\n

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She says some of the participants return home to launch their own socially-conscious businesses.<\/p>\n

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\u201cPeople don\u2019t have to go down the age-old path of going to uni and working their way up the corporate ladder anymore,\u201d Colenbrander says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMillennials are looking for something more meaningful.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Do you know more on this story or have a tip of your own? Raising capital or launching a startup? Let us know. Follow StartupSmart on <\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/a>, <\/i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>, and <\/i>LinkedIn<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 An Australian startup\u2019s plan to light up India\u2019s poorest communities with solar power has outshone its competitors for the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37684"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}