(Alberto Masnovo / Shutterstock.com)
The power to save the world is in your hands. That’s what the founders of Jumpstart, a new start-up crowdfunding platform for clean energy projects strongly believe in.
Jumpstart’s mission is to achieve universal clean electricity access worldwide. How they do it is very simple, Jumpstart connects loans to thoroughly vetted projects that will make a big difference.
The platform launched at the end of October 2018 and is already helping four ambitious projects meat their goal. Aoi Senju, CEO and co-founder of Jumpstart, says he and his team were motivated to create the website to make sure that anyone can support clean energy, anywhere in the world.
In the Western world, awareness for global warming and alternative energy has risen immensely in the past decade and hundreds of companies, big and small, are inventing and building new technologies to create clean energy all the time.
“Carbon is a global budget, so we must change every part of the world,” the Jumpstart website says. “It won’t matter if one corner of the world is 100% clean if the other corner of the world is 100% dirty.”
While many parts of the world such as Africa have abundant natural resources to harness clean energy, proper financing isn’t available to these areas to develop solar energy.
Jumpstart says it wants to put the power to change that fact into the hands of everyday people. The site’s algorithm selects a few high-value locations for renewable energy installations, uses machine learning to determine the credit-worthiness of a customer, and once the location, project developer, and customers have been selected, the project is posted on the website and can begin to collect funding.
Prospective donors can choose between impact-focused projects, where their contribution is used as a donation and return-focused, where their contribution is returned with interest.
To make sure that only projects with enough support get selected, they only receive their funding once their target is met.
Currently, the four projects running on the site are seeking to build a solar farm in Rwanda, bring solar energy to an indigenous community in Montana, fund solar lanterns for Rohingya refugees, and help the Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation achieve energy independence.
Keep an eye on Jumpstart as it grows and develops and be sure to check back regularly to find a project you want to support.
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