Pollinate Energy - Case Study
Thousands of people living in slums on the edges of India’s major cities have no access to services that we would consider essential, such as electricity and clean water.
Melbourne-based social business Pollinate Energy is determined to change that. It was established in 2012 with the simple aim of bringing life-changing products to the people who need them most. It is currently operating in five cities across India and has plans to expand into five more.
The solar lantern is the cornerstone of the Pollinate plan. To date, the organisation has distributed almost 25,000 solar lights to slum communities.
Key learnings
- A diverse team has advantages: With six co-founders from very different backgrounds, Pollinate Energy was able to share the workload in the early days and take advantage of individuals’ expertise.
- Use local staff who know the market: Hiring salespeople who understand the communities in which they work is vital for overcoming cultural barriers.
- Volunteering opportunities can add value: Pollinate Energy’s fellowship scheme gives candidates real-world experience and has helped the enterprise expand across India.
- Get good legal advice from the start: Dealing with Indian bureaucracy can be tricky so seek expert support.
- Let your objectives define your company structure: Decide what you want your venture to achieve before choosing the structure you will employ.
- Connect with local entrepreneurs: Having a support network in Asia can help you solve problems as you get established.
- Be flexible around funding: Money will be available from a range of sources, so find ways to make investment of any kind work.
The idea
Customers pay for the lights upfront by taking a loan from Pollinate, which they pay back over several weeks. This makes financial sense for the customer: the light will long outlast the loan period, and allow the family to drastically reduce the amount they spend on kerosene, which is typically around 20 per cent of their weekly income.
The lamps and other Pollinate products – which include stoves, water filters and fans – are distributed by a local team of door-to-door salespeople known as Pollinators. These workers, who come from disadvantaged backgrounds themselves, organise payment plans for customers, show them how to use the products, and collect repayments.
The impact of Pollinate’s work is considerable. The business has helped around 120,000 people so far. Customers report a range of benefits, from brighter light around the home to it being easier for children to study at night.
It is also helping to develop the skills of its local sales representatives, and supporting the next generation of social entrepreneurs through a unique fellowship program.
A diverse team has advantages
Pollinate’s six co-founders all came from very different backgrounds, which helped in the beginning. “I see a lot of organisations that are just a one-person show and that person is having to do everything, often including things that are outside their skillset,” says co‑founder Monique Alfris.
From the start it was clear that Pollinate would have to employ local talent in India. “We were obviously very conscious of the fact we weren’t Indian, we didn’t speak any Indian languages and were trying to sell to Indian people who didn’t speak any English” says Monique.
The solution was to recruit local people who came understood the needs of the slum communities, and were keen to make a difference. These recruits – known as Pollinators – sell the items to the communities, train people in their use, and collect the repayments.
“For most things we had someone for whom that was their skillset and their main area of passion and interest. It also meant that if someone had other obligations that they had to attend to, the organisation didn’t fall over because there were all these other people there that were supporting it.”
The Pollinators receive the bulk of their commission once the loans have been repaid, but they are far from being heavy-handed debt collectors.
“We all know that financial difficulty can hit at any time, especially for these people in the communities” says Monique. “If something happens and the customer can’t pay we say, ‘it’s not the end of the world, we’ll just take the light back and as soon as you’re ready to start making your repayments again we’ll give it back to you’. It’s about having a bit of compassion as well and not always being about the bottom line.”
Knowing their customer base well means the Pollinators can adjust their sales approach to suit – for example, not targeting families affected by illness, or who are about to spend a lot of money on a wedding or religious festival.
“We were obviously very conscious of the fact we weren’t Indian, we didn’t speak any Indian languages and were trying to sell to Indian people who didn’t speak any English”
Volunteering opportunities can add value
Pollinate Energy runs a fellowship program that allows young people to spend a month working on strategic projects for the organisation.
“We try to make it more than just a volunteering experience. It’s an opportunity to build your resume, to understand how the business works and to get in there and get your hands dirty, to work on your own project and see it through to success”, says Monique.
The funding and manpower that the volunteer program provides has helped Pollinate expand into five cities, and is seen as a crucial part of the business. “It’s not a volunteer strategy that’s on the side, it’s fundamental to everything that we do” says Monique.
Get good legal advice from the start
India is known as a difficult place to do business so it’s important to seek good advice from the beginning of your venture, says Monique. While she was able to set up the Australian side of the business in the day, establishing the Indian operation was far more difficult.
“It’s a very different way of doing business compared to what we are used to here in Australia. There are many, many forms that you need to fill in, and there are many, many agencies that you need to get certificates with” she says.
“It is super-important to get very good legal advice from the very beginning. Ask around and make sure that the person that you’re dealing with is going to give you the right advice.”
“You also need to be patient and stay on top of everything. If you get distracted and something doesn’t happen it can take months to rectify that particular issue.”
Let your objectives define your company structure
Monique is often asked if Pollinate Energy is a charity or a business. The answer is a bit of both: it is a charity in Australia, which wholly owns the business in India.
“We didn’t want to run a charity in India, we wanted to run a business, but it is for development and we don’t want to be making profits from that business. We just want it to be sustainable” says Monique.
Any profits the Indian operation makes are either reinvested in the business, or passed to the Australian charity to use.
“We looked at what we wanted to do and then found the legal structure that best matched that,” says Monique. “Don’t get hung up on the idea of being a business or a social business or a non-profit. From a legal point of view, put aside your thoughts on what those terms actually mean, look at what you are able to do under each of those structures and pick the one that works best for you.”
Connect with local entrepreneurs
The Pollinate team found a strong network of like-minded people in Bangalore, regarded as India’s Silicon Valley.
“It’s a little different now, but when we started the business in Australia none of my friends and colleagues here had ever started a business before or if they had, it was a single venture – just them doing consulting work, or maybe they hired one or two people to help them” says Monique.
“India was way ahead. We joined a social enterprise group that was filled with organisations that were starting up social businesses in all different areas – baby healthcare, clean water, large-scale clean renewables, all sorts of different finance and tech solutions.
“We went along to those meetings and it was amazing. No matter what problem you had, someone else in the group would be having it as well, and there would be somebody that had just solved that particular problem and was able to give you a solution.”
Monique says the network they found played a huge part in Pollinate’s early success. “We had this huge community of people that were really excited and passionate about what we were doing and doing really exciting things as well. Everyone wanted to share their ideas and figure out how we could work together.”
“We were so lucky to land in Bangalore and land in that community of people. It is a hotbed for innovation.”
Be flexible around funding
Fundraising takes persistence. Monique and her colleagues took every opportunity available to pitch to potential supporters.
But they also learned not to be too picky about what form investment in Pollinate took. “I remember this one guy at a conference who’d raised money for tens of companies and his biggest piece of advice was ‘stop worrying about what the money looks like’,” Monique says. “A lot of people have a concern about whether it’s equity or debt or fundraised money and his attitude was basically if you can get money, just take it.”
“We had actually been quite nervous about equity and in the end our business structure didn’t really work for that, but if someone had come along to us with equity we would have tried to find a way to make it work.”
A sustainable future
Monique says Pollinate Energy will be truly sustainable when it has expanded into 10 cities. “We’ll keep growing until we become sustainable and continue to provide people with access to services that are going to change their lives.”