VOLTWAYS ENERGY PRIVATE LIMITED

In their own words

What is the problem that we are addressing? 400 million households in rural India have very little to no access to the traditional grid based electricity. They rely on kerosene as their main source for lighting. Even with government interventions, the number of these underserved households is expected to decrease by 5% in the next 10 years. Besides having adverse effect on environment use of kerosene possess a serious health hazard also. The light from a kerosene lamp is very weak, meaning people cannot work and children cannot study after the sun goes down. A typical kerosene lamp delivers between 1 and 6 lux of light. In contrast, typical western standards suggest a minimum of 300 lux for tasks such as reading. Kerosene also emits carbon which contributes to climate change. For every litre of kerosene burnt, around 2.5kg of carbon dioxide is produced. There has also been instances where due to the kerosene lamps persons have lost there lives. The World Health Organisation estimates kerosene gas lamps kill more than 1.5 million people each year. Dependency on renewable energy (less lumen light source) also limits their ability to work in late hours (after sunset) leading to reduction in their income level. And now those looking to solar as a solution do not receive any after-sales service. As a result, their purchases go to waste and they feel cheated after purchasing unreliable solutions. How does our startup propose to solve this problem? Voltways is trying to address this problem by manufacturing affordable, effective solar solutions which will be marketed and serviced (touch point) by the local community (specially women). We are manufacturing products which are of highest standards reducing our dependency on the certain foreign companies. We have developed a model in which the local persons ( focus will be on women) will be trained as a solar entrepreneur (or they can also start solar energy shops) We will be providing these entrepreneurs with marketing support which will help these village entrepreneurs market these products. As they are from the local area hence they will act as a touch point for the after sales services to ensure repairs. We will also be providing a back end support in the form of call center to educate the customers and addressing their service issues. What is the uniqueness of our solution? Beside making affordable, durable and effective solar products we will be making leaders in Rural India. As of now all the solar manufacturers are working with the dealers and distributors for their end sales. And this has lead to flood of cheap quality solar products in the market having no after sales service support.. Our model is unique in the way that it is the 1st solar manufacturing company in India which is going beyond the traditional business model (dealer, distributor type) for the sales and after sales service of the products. We will be making women the central force for spreading the light and safety for the rural households and this will in turn create financially appealing livelihoods in renewable energy.

Written by the company on its public Startup India profile. Not verified by us.