THRIVE is founded by a group of professionals to work for the benefits of rural and tribal communities in Home Lighting, ICT, Education and Health using advanced and innovative technologies

Routes to Market and Implementation

THRIVE route to market has, until now, been almost exclusively through NGOs
and World Bodies like the United Nations, the World Bank and the Department for
International Development. A typical project / order would work as follows:-

• An NGO or a government / semi-government agency will contact THRIVE
  because it wants to bring light to a village where it has a presence. Generally the
  NGO will have an office in relative proximity to the village and some field
  volunteers in the village. From each village the NGO will have a volunteer /
  coordinator for programmes in that village.
   

• THRIVE will prepare a good GIS map for the area and with the help of the
  NGO will understand the local electricity supply and usage situation. THRIVE
  will then install some demonstration lighting in the village (either using its own
  funds or some initial funding from the NGO). This helps the community, the NGO
  and other stakeholders to buy into the project. THRIVE will then organize training
  for the NGO and explain the steps and stages involved in the project.
   

• The local NGO volunteers and staff will then identify the villages and plan for
  the phasing of the implementation and start developing registers and village
  household data. Lamps will be sold to the NGO for 800-900 Rupees each (costing
  THRIVE 600-700 Rupees to manufacture). The NGO will then expect the
  householder to pay an upfront contribution (say 350 Rupees) and will then collect a monthly payment for the next 5 years to pay for the light (say 30 Rupees per
  month) and pay for the maintenance / battery costs (say 5 Rupees per month).
   

• Phased implementation then begins with charging stations identified and
  battery charges installed in the stations. Each station can serve up to 10 villages
  depending on the proximity of the station to the villages. Villages will usually be
  within a maintainable distance of 10 km. At this stage the NGO also collects the
  advance deposit from the householder at an agreed rate.
   

• Every 10 days or so the volunteer organizes the charging of the batteries at the
  charging station (either through grid power or through a solar charging station
  wherever there is no grid power). The charging station will always keep 3-4 spare
  fully charged batteries as well as 2 lights. In addition there will be district
  maintenance units that will carry spare display PCBs and control circuits, which
  are 'plug and play' which means they can be simply removed and replaced without
  any soldering and unscrewing.
   

• Monthly rental is collected by the volunteer and paid to the NGO and
  volunteer share is distributed. Accounts are maintained and capital cost (in case
  needed) is paid back to the lender. The village entrepreneur can earn a monthly
  income of Rs1000 to Rs2000, based on the number of LED Home Lights they
  maintain and service.
   

• The table below provides an example of how the funding of a typical NGO
  project would work. This example assumes the NGO is required to borrow the
  funds at a commercial rate and repay within 5 years. It is frequently the case that
  the NGO is 'granted' the money or its is lent on an interest-free scenario. In these
  scenarios the NGO will either have great 'profit' to reinvest into the villages or will
  be able to reduce the cost of the lamps to the villagers.

NGOs will remain an important route to market for THRIVE and management is
keen to standardize the approach (in terms of selling price). Management is also
seeking to supplement the NGO business with alternative distribution channels:-
 

Microfinance - THRIVE is currently exploring partnership arrangements with large
microfinance agencies. The funding of these large scale projects would be similar to
the NGO example with the following differences:-

• Project length would typically be 12 months.

• Monthly payments for the householder would therefore be higher

• Microfinance agency would lend money to the village entrepreneur to enable
  them to buy the lights from THRIVE.

• Village entrepreneur would use monthly payments from the householders to
  repay his microfinance loan.

• Rates of interest for microfinance are generally higher.

LED / Solar Entrepreneurs - will typically operate in small rural towns / villages
from a shop (also their home) and a vehicle. They will buy lights from THRIVE on
a sale or return basis and will be responsible for servicing the lights and charging the
batteries and will charge for extra to his customers for this.

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