Our Product Portable mobile phone charger that captures excess heat to power mobile devices. Keeping the poorest peoples cell phones charged, no grid required.

Gitonga Wanjohi (Psychology) Njenga James (Electric Eng. ) CoFounder&Research Engineering

Ken Kinoti Edith Nasimbwa (Finance) (Industrial Design)

No. of customer interviews: 50

30 million cellphones in Kenya, 9 million Kenyans on grid power Walk long distance to charge their phones Recurrent costs to charge phones Possibility of phone theft, battery exchange, not enough phone charge time Exploitation from not enough phone charge time due to too much congestion Current solutions do not work as they are supposed to Crank held charger is broken Bicycle dynamo charger being used in a sewing machine, being pedalled by hand

data obtained from the Communication Commission of Kenya and Kenya Power

Market Opportunity Assessment

Total Available Market

30 million

Served Available Market

9 million

Target Market

1 million

Generated by LaunchPad Central

Crank held devices break after a short while

The terrain is not suitable for bicycle dynamos Solar panels are prone to theft and weather conditions

F

Had invalidated Telcos as partners Had put as customers people affected as power outages in town but they have enough charge in their phones to last the outage time, so we cancelled that out Had also decided to focus on urban campers as part of our customers need it as a camping companion

Customer archetype They live in rural areas, off the grid The family usually have 2 cell phones They cook once a day (dinner) They charge their phones at least 2 a week They have basic phones and China make models They cook using firewood or a jiko (charcoal) Usually attend and receive communication from the community centre

Mission Our big idea is to keep everyone cell phone online no grid required. Impact We hope to have people to get to charge their phones in the convenience of their houses anytime And to keep them connected, always and also avoiding the hassles of being off line Behaviour mapping We get customers to know our existence through notice boards Introduce the product through local demos to women groups this will get us referral

We talked to a few partners, see if they`d be interested in a possible partnership Airtel would be interested in a future partnership based on data usage and phone uptime in rural areas, done in a split revenue model Ecozoom are launching in Africa, they make eco friendly jikos and would like to bundle our product with their jiko World Vision expresses an interest in purchasing our product for their volunteers in Sudan and Somali

From the field we found two important things • Need to work on design (make it more adaptable to be used in open flames) (make it more aesthetically pleasing) • Need to make it more affordable •Need to include capacity to charge more than one phone

Manufacturing Costs Fabrication Costs: 2 USD per piece (re-working design) Thermoelectric Modules: 6 USD per piece Phone charging cable : 0.50 cts Selling price, Kshs 1700, (20 USD)

Importance of getting customer feedback about your product before rolling it out There are a lot of people who`ll help out if we just ask (local chiefs and community influencers) Customers don`t really care about the product or features, they just want something that alleviates their pain points Video link of our product demo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JRSkQRcizc&feature=em-upload_owner-smbtn How the experience was http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEtf8vnPsgE We think that it`s a viable business opportunity as the segment is currently underserved and the solutions don`t work as they ought to, we intend on pursuing it further once the class is done