Technical Partners

Identifying and partnering with technical enterprises was a key element in any intervention as the SELCO Foundation did not manufacture or sell any devices. Two types of devices were required in DRE-powered livelihood promotion: electric-powered machines that perform tasks more effectively and solar energy set-ups that provide electricity for those machines.

Besides its own ecosystem map, SF relies on community partners to steer them to the best enterprises serving a locality. Rachita Misra, SF’s Associate Director, Knowledge & Outreach, notes,

They are able to tell us, "If you want to do something super innovative, go to this guy, because he's really entrepreneurial. He will speak to you openly. Don't go to that person. That person is too far away. His business is generally not in a good condition.” These local community partners help with strategic decisions.

While the technical aspects of building devices were important, the technical partners played other roles in making an intervention work. For marketing, technical enterprises could convince reluctant householders to purchase. For maintenance and support, the technical enterprises had the greatest know-how and are in the best position to troubleshoot problems and address them, such as ordering and installing spare parts should the need arise.1

Solar Energy Set-Ups

Initially in the Northeast, SF concentrated on identifying and partnering with entrepreneurs who provided solar panels. These businesses focused on bridging the last mile between the manufacturers of solar equipment and the microenterprise. These solar panel entrepreneurs sourced the equipment, configured the system, and installed the devices. Though the technology is well-understood at this point, a solar panel power source, nonetheless, is not simple to connect.  A solar system consisted of a number of components – the panels that convert sunlight into DC electricity, an inverter that converts the DC current to AC to power machines, and a rechargeable battery. All these had to be transported to the distant areas where the customers lived and then properly joined and situated to be usable.

For customers, the irregularity of the electrical grid represented the greatest purchase incentive for solar panels and connections. Householders knew that grid electricity would likely only be available a few hours a day or even be out for days at a time. But previous merchants had muddied the waters. Suppliers had sold inferior solar panels, much cheaper but unreliable, and provided little support when things went wrong.

Solar-Powered Devices

Once a critical mass of entrepreneurs who could provide solar set-ups was established in the Northeast, SF turned to working with enterprises that provided technologies to enhance livelihoods. Jaffer recounts,

From 2012 to about 2020, we were more focused on assisting clean energy enterprises. We’ve incubated nearly 70 enterprises since 2012, and we believe there are enough clean energy last-mile enterprises in the region. So, we don’t need to keep incubating. Around 2020, we started onboarding more technology-based enterprises.

A key element was ensuring that a given machine meshed with the amount of power that a solar panel could provide.  Early on in its efforts, SELCO India found that off-the-shelf machines assumed connection to the grid and might not work with a solar set-up. These machines often included features that were unnecessary to the small livelihoods that SELCO was seeking to support. For example, SELCO India discovered that seamstresses could not use solar energy because standard sewing machines required more electricity than solar could provide. However further investigation revealed that the machines were overpowered for the light fabrics and types of stitching those Indian seamstresses used. When appropriate sewing machines were sourced, they could be run by solar power.

Other technical aspects had to be suited microenterprise requirements. For example, sometimes off-the-shelf offerings for a particular technology did not allow operators to manufacture in appropriate quantities that would sustain a microenterprise. Egg incubator manufacturers might offer a model that allowed incubating ten eggs at a time, not enough to sustain an enterprise. But the next largest model might have a capacity of 500 eggs, far more than a microenterprise could support. A 50-egg incubator might be just the right size to start a chicken-raising operation and then offer the possibility of additional units should demand increase – but often these mid-level technologies were not readily available.

SF approached these device manufacturers in various stages of development. Sometimes, a technical enterprise had a technical solution ready to go. In this case, SF worked with the enterprise to certify the technology and then connect the manufacturer with households and businesses looking for that kind of machine. Jaffer says, “We work with them, connect them to the people who are going to be using that technology so that they can validate it, give the right feedback, get them the right money, and otherwise help them grow.”

Other would-be technical entrepreneurs do not have market-ready equipment to meet a particular livelihood need but were interested in developing such products. For these entrepreneurs, SF could incubate their businesses, providing funding and guidance. The Foundation helped with market research, both of the existing landscape of technical alternatives and of the enterprise’s intended consumers. The Foundation’s incubation efforts were generally limited to two years, though sometimes SF supports these endeavors beyond this period. In other instances, SF offered innovation contracts to clever tinkerers to build new machines according to the Foundation’s specifications. The design of the resulting device belonged to SF which they offer to local technical enterprises to serve as the basis of their business.

Altogether in 2023, SF’s efforts to identify and develop machines that enhanced livelihood operations had yielded a catalog of some 175 that could be used in conjunction with solar power.