ARED Germany UG has surpassed the halfway mark in its crowdfunding campaign seeking to raise €250,000. It is a Germany company set up to finance projects of ARED Group, a social enterprise that operates in Rwanda.
"The ARED Germany UG is owner and borrower of the project. She was established for the financing projects of the ARED Group (ARED - African Renewable Energy Distributor Ltd.), which operates in Rwanda," reads the company profile.
Germany-based GreenTec Capital Partners, one of the investors in ARED Group, congratulated it yesterday when it hit €128,000. A figure slightly above the "minimum fundraising limit" of €125,000.
Related: We raised funding from Greentec & Village Capital, Henri Nyakarundi
After raising the funding, from reading the details of the campaign, ARED German UG will then advance the funds in form of a loan to ARED Group.
"The ARED Germany UG is solely responsible for the transfer of the loan to the ARED Group, which implements the project on site," reads part of the details.
The campaign is running on a Germany crowdfunding platform called Bettervest. With the current progress, It is highly unlikely that the company will fail to attain its target. Given that the campaign has over 2 months to go.
According to the campaign details, the funds will go towards "the production and installation of 80 mobile solar hubs called "Shiriki Hubs" in Rwanda." These will be operated by "independent franchisees and offer important services to mobile device users".
Shiriki Hubs are "equipped with a foldable 135 W solar module, which is supplied by the German company Wattstunde GmbH".
Also read: Wazi Vision Secures $800,000 from GreenTec Capital
They also have a locking system for security as well as a "router and an IOT hardware system, speakers and a lithium-iron-phosphate battery from Chinese manufacturer Winston Battery Ltd." All assembling takes place in Germany with the exception of "directly deliverable parts from China such as the batteries."
According to ARED, the Shiriki hub can offer the following services; mobile money, access to the internet, telephony, mobile charging and more.
ARED - which is Africa Renewable Energy Distributors in full - is a social enterprise with operations in Rwanda and recently Uganda. Founded by Henri Nyakarundi, the company has a hybrid business model.
So far, from my conversation with Henri earlier this year, the company has managed to attract a sizeable amount of funding. Some of the investors are Village Capital and GreenTec Capital.
Also read: GreenTec Capital announces investment in Kenya’s Bismart Insurance
Beyond that, Henri also informed me that the company has benefited from a couple of grants here and there. "I would say 80% of our technology was developed through grants and competitions. That’s about $1M," he told me.