In anticipation of European Microfinance Week, 16 - 18 November, our media partner Responsible Investor (RI) posed some questions to Triple Jump:
The market for pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar solutions is growing fast, according to a Bloomberg report from February 2016, titled 'Off-grid Solar Market Trends'. PAYG companies have different business models and offer a variety of products. But their commonality is that consumers pay in affordable instalments. And if they can't pay, a mechanism disables the system.
RI talks to Jan-Henrik Kuhlmann, Senior Investment Manager, and Jirin van Santen, Business Development Manager of Triple Jump, the investment fund manager. Kuhlmann will participate in a panel during European Microfinance Week in Luxembourg on 16-18 November where the financing of PAYG solar models will be discussed. Responsible Investor is a media partner for the event.
RI: According to the Bloomberg study, investments in PAYG solar companies have accelerated rapidly from $19m in 2013 to $120m in 2016. What is the opportunity of the PAYG business model?
Jirin van Santen: PAYG is one of the models that uses new technology in order to provide people access to electricity. It certainly has risen strongly in the last couple of years. I think investments totalled $360m in the last 3-4 years. We definitely see it as an opportunity. But while the PAYG model is becoming more professional and proven with every year, there are also companies that still haven't figured out the business model yet, despite having received tens of millions of investments. The relative growth of PAYG is impressive, but it needs to be put into context of starting from a low base within a large scale mature energy industry of hundreds of billion USD.
Read the full interview here
The market for pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar solutions is growing fast, according to a Bloomberg report from February 2016, titled 'Off-grid Solar Market Trends'. PAYG companies have different business models and offer a variety of products. But their commonality is that consumers pay in affordable instalments. And if they can't pay, a mechanism disables the system.
RI talks to Jan-Henrik Kuhlmann, Senior Investment Manager, and Jirin van Santen, Business Development Manager of Triple Jump, the investment fund manager. Kuhlmann will participate in a panel during European Microfinance Week in Luxembourg on 16-18 November where the financing of PAYG solar models will be discussed. Responsible Investor is a media partner for the event.
RI: According to the Bloomberg study, investments in PAYG solar companies have accelerated rapidly from $19m in 2013 to $120m in 2016. What is the opportunity of the PAYG business model?
Jirin van Santen: PAYG is one of the models that uses new technology in order to provide people access to electricity. It certainly has risen strongly in the last couple of years. I think investments totalled $360m in the last 3-4 years. We definitely see it as an opportunity. But while the PAYG model is becoming more professional and proven with every year, there are also companies that still haven't figured out the business model yet, despite having received tens of millions of investments. The relative growth of PAYG is impressive, but it needs to be put into context of starting from a low base within a large scale mature energy industry of hundreds of billion USD.
Read the full interview here