Helping Farming Communities Earn More with Solar-Powered Agro-Processing and Microgrids. Contact: Impact Investment Overview

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1 Helping Farming Communities Earn More with Solar-Powered Agro-Processing and Microgrids Contact: Impact Investment Overview

2 Nepal 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. Meet Gham Power 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.

3 Innovative Solutions: 2+ MW of Solar deployed across 2,000+ projects to date Smart Solar-powered Water Pumps with Access to Finance 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 Platform with bankable projects for investors, MFI s and banks Microgrids for rural areas 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 offgrid 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.

4 Path to Scale 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 creditworthiness 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.

5 Proven Track Record 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. 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. Contact impact@ghampower.com 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 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 Farming Households 750+ Women Farmers Social Return on Investment (SROI): $2.78 For every investment of $1 raised, an impact of $2.78 is created 1,051 Tons