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The mission: bring light to the lives of everyone still living in the dark. A product and business model around a solar-powered lamp made this possible. Hundreds of thousands of people without access to electricity received a free solar lamp, funded by sales in the global West.
More than 20% of the world's population has no access to electricity. After sunset, darkness remains, lit only by candles and kerosene lamps. This causes serious health damage, high CO2 emissions and poor learning outcomes for children. It is a problem of enormous scale and urgency.
Kim, a Protopia advisor, was co-founder of Off-Grid Solutions BV, the company behind WakaWaka. In that role, she contributed to business modelling, strategic advice and management, with the mission of bringing light to the lives of everyone still living in the dark.
WakaWaka grew into the world's most efficient line of solar LED products. By the time Kim left, more than 400,000 people had access to light thanks to the products, enabling children to study and refugees to rebuild their lives.