UK company BBOXX receives Silicon Valley funding
British solar energy company, BBOXX, has received an $1.5million investment from Silicon Valley-based Vinod Khosla through his personal fund, Khosla Impact, and an additional $400,000 from the UK's Synergy Growth.
The investment is aimed at helping BBOXX, which develops solar power solutions for the developing world, achieve its goal of bringing electricity to 20 million people by 2020. It will allow BBOXX to invest in its entire supply chain "“ including design, manufacturing, distribution and customer financing "“ with the goal of making the company a world leader in off-grid electricity provision.
Mansoor Hamayun, BBOXX CEO, said: "This investment represents a new level of maturity for BBOXX. When my co-founders and I launched the company, we saw more than just a product; we envisaged a service. We saw the potential in solar to provide a clean, sustainable and cost-effective energy solution with the power to change lives in the developing world. Our new partnership with Khosla Impact and Synergy Growth is the next step on our important journey, and one that will have a significant and disruptive impact on the solar energy industry across many of the world's emergent nations."
BBOXX was formed in 2010 by three electronics and electrical engineering graduates from Imperial College London, as a spin-off from their self-formed university charity, e.quinox. Operating in 14 countries across Africa and Asia, BBOXX's mission is to provide a sustainable and reliable solution to the 1.4 billion people currently living without electricity.
Khosla Impact, Vinod Khosla's personal investment vehicle for market-based solutions to poverty and development, was formed in 2011 by Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla. It provides assistance to entrepreneurs developing products and services for the three billion people at the bottom of the world's economic pyramid.
Khosla, who has been assisting and investing in entrepreneurs for nearly 30 years, said of BBOXX: "The BBOXX team shows what is possible when entrepreneurs and engineers take on the problems of development. Technology is the most cost effective way to multiply resources. BBOXX is serving parts of the world furthest from the grid and most in need of electricity, while maintaining capital efficiency, profitability and entrepreneurial agility. This is not easy. The team has done a great job and we are pleased to fund their investments in new distribution channels and new product development."
An additional $400,000 has been invested by Synergy Growth, a British investment fund targeting breakthrough clean tech businesses.
