Impact Investment

Overview

Helping Farming Communities Earn More with

Solar-Powered Agro-Processing and Microgrids

Contact: impact@ghampower.com

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

impact@ghampower.com