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Impact Investment
Overview
Helping Farming Communities Earn More with
Solar-Powered Agro-Processing and Microgrids
Contact: [email protected]
The most beautiful country in the world, with massive
natural, historical and cultural beauty. Gifted a lot by
the nature, but also a country where the same nature
can be brutal and cruel. Nowhere is the challenge of
responding to the varied impacts of climate change
more daunting. The problems of today, such as drought,
forest fires, and flooding, will only be magnified by
climate change. In Nepal, changes in monsoon patterns
will greatly exacerbate the situation of unacceptable
presence of poverty and inequalities in the country.
The results are most visible in rural, agricultural areas
where crop yields are limited due to lack of irrigation
and agro-processing. The common challenge faced by
Nepali farmers is: How will I irrigate my fields? How
much water can I afford? What should I grow? In absence
of data, all this is just guesswork, which makes it next
to impossible to access bank financing to fund solutions
for improving agricultural yield and income.
Besides, Nepal faces another big challenge: 7 million
Nepalis live without access to electricity, mostly in
rural, subsistence farming communities, which affects
the exact same farmers also challenged by the effects
of climate change. There are 2.7 million smallholder
farmers in Nepal, over 60% rely on subsistence farming,
mostly relying on monsoon for watering their crops.
About 5% use diesel or electrical water pumps and even
they can’t irrigate adequately due to irregular supply of
grid electricity and high cost of diesel. As a result, only
28% of the total agricultural land is irrigated.
Gham Power is a unique solar company in Nepal whose mission is to transform lives in rural
off-grid communities by using solar power to increase local income. It was founded in 2010
by Sandeep Giri, a veteran entrepreneur who has launched successful tech companies in San
Francisco bay area, last one acquired by Oracle. Gham started with providing rooftop solar
to replace diesel backup systems in Kathmandu, and Sandeep and his team soon wanted to
have a deeper impact in the country and outside the cities. Enter Anjal Niraula, a
renewable energy expert trained in Jacobs University in Germany, and also a Chevening
scholar from University of Edinburgh, who took the helm as the General Manager and
started focusing on providing energy access for rural households and productive use.
Meet Gham Power
Nepal
Innovative Solutions:
2+ MW of Solar deployed across 2,000+ projects to date
Innovative water pumps powered by solar
energy and equipped with smart meters and
mobile money to automate monitoring and
payment collection; a proven model in off-grid
solar market, now introduced for water pumps
Helps farmers select crops and water pumps to
maximize yield and revenue (using existing
agricultural datasets and algorithms)
Posts financing needs as investment profiles to
Gham’s project development platform, which
banks, MFI’s, and investors can use to review
and fund projects online
Thus services rural farming communities with
• Access to renewable energy for productive,
agricultural use
• Access to water/irrigation services, and
data-driven crop selection
• Access to finance
This product is completely tested and piloted,
and now ready for its first scale up
Gham’s platform collects data on everything from
a farmer’s energy usage and payment details (and
thus calculates creditworthiness), to agricultural
metrics like water usage, weather, soil pH level,
and crop yield, all of which is enormously
important to banks, MFI’s, and investors who
want to invest directly in Nepali renewable off-
grid energy projects. By making the platform
available to these financing parties, Gham can
enable access to finance for the farmers, and at
the same time create leverage to accelerate
scaling these projects.
Having deployed several microgrids in remote
areas, Gham has developed deep insights in making
microgrids financially sustainable. Productive use
is key, either through (micro) entrepreneurship,
agricultural use, combined with hospitality
services in touristic areas.
Smart Solar-powered Water
Pumps with Access to Finance
Platform with bankable projects
for investors, MFI’s and banks
Microgrids for rural areas
Our field agents, through our partnership with local agro co-operatives, are continuously
organizing community meetings to educate farmers on the solution. We are also negotiating
MoU’s with two NGO’s to work as field agents. They all will collect data from interested farmers
into our online project development tool which will analyze each project and assign a credit-
worthiness score to each farmer. The projects will then be made available to local banks and
impact investors (grant or equity) who can review the projects online and choose to invest. Once
projects are financed, we will install the systems along with our smart meters, which facilitate
payment collection and system monitoring.
We have deployed 50+ solar water pumping projects in Nepal (>400 kW), and field tested our
smart meter prototypes at 3 sites. We have grant funding from GIZ to test a new version of smart
meter at 20 new customer sites. Two local banks are ready to provide up to 70% funding for
projects developed using our tool. We have partnered with a leading mobile money solution
provider, and also have reliable suppliers for water pump and solar panels.
Additionally, at sites with multiple agro-processing systems deployed, where we can identify
additional revenue sources from energy-enabled services like telecom tower, telemedicine, cyber
center, and/or tourism services like small eateries and tea lodges, we plan to implement
microgrids that power the entire community and further help raise local income.
In total, we have identified a project pipeline worth of USD 3.4 million; 330 agro-processing
systems and 28 microgrids.
We are initially targeting commercial farmers selling vegetables and fish. As we facilitate funding
for their projects and gather operational data, we can identify farmer profiles best served by our
solutions. This way, we can train local agents and partners to reach farmers matching these
profiles, and make our products more affordable and easier to finance.
Path to Scale
We are targeting to raise $400k in grant funds to fully build out our
project development tool, manufacture a new and improved batch of
smart meters ready for the field, and fund an initial tranche of projects
with this model so that these projects and method of investment
become attractive for commercial investors. We expect this to facilitate
funding for our project pipeline projects over the next 24 months, which
we expect to drive $3 million in project financing in equity investment
from commercial investors, and debt financing from local banks and
MFI’s.
To date, Gham has deployed over 2 megawatts of solar across 1,600+
projects, powering thousands of small businesses and households.
This includes 50+ solar water pumping projects (>400 kW) and 7
microgrids in farming communities (>200 kW), including Nepal’s first
and largest solar microgrid that is community-owned, and continues
to operate profitably. Based on this extensive field experience, Gham
continues to refine its solution to be holistic, practical and
affordable, with a goal is to serve 100,000 small-holder farmers in
the next 5 years, addressing a $200 million market.
Proven Track
Record
The Team
Gham Power has a dedicated and experienced team of local
entrepreneurs, who are all mission driven and with a strong
eye for business opportunities and commerce. CEO Sandeep
Giri, after being a successful serial entrepreneur in the US,
set up Gham Power in Nepal to address the energy
challenges in his home country. General Manager Anjal
Niraula has deep off-grid solar expertise, with MS in
renewable energy from UK and Germany. Operations
Manager Sudeep Tuladhar managed large teams in
construction engineering and finance. Project manager
Bishwaraj Bhattarai led business development in education
and hospitality space. In total, Gham Power currently
employs 30 people.
In addition, Gham Power has a board of advisors including
Willem Grimminck from OneToWatch and Rockstart Capital,
and Daphne Pit from Pit Pure Power.
Impact Investment Opportunity: Seeking $400k in Grants
500+Farming Households
750+Women Farmers
1,051 Tons
Social Return on Investment (SROI): $2.78
For every investment of $1 raised,
an impact of $2.78 is created
Contact