When Nuru Energy was named one of seven finalists for the Zayed Future Energy Prizes awarded in Abu Dhabi earlier this year, it had an almost odds-on chance of picking up between US$500,000 and US$1.5 million prize money. A fortune for a non-profit start-up operation with plenty of outgoings but minimal returns.
Nuru Energy, founded by CEO Sameer Hajee (MBA 04D) has won 12 grants, worth more than US$1 million, since launching in Rwanda in 2009. The money has been vital in enabling the company to develop its lighting cubes and a distribution network necessary to fulfil its dream of providing clean, safe, affordable, pedal-powered lighting to the world’s poorest. “The awards have been crucially important to us, primarily because we had an idea that didn’t actually have a business model behind it,” Hajee told Knowledge. “The business had to be developed and nurtured over the course of two years before it became attractive to a commercial financier.”
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