Supporting Mission-Driven Entrepreneurs
Rwanda-based platform-as-a-service startup ARED, known for its “Smart Business in a Box” solar-powered kiosks, has made Uganda its first international market.
http://disrupt-africa.com/2019/05/rwandan-platform-as-a-service-startup-ared-expands-to-uganda/
Electricity was unavailable, or perhaps epileptic at best, in parts of Burundi, and his folks lived in an area that was particularly notorious for week-long blackouts. Thus, the locals had to make long trips to neighboring communities that were not as badly hit. And such journeys were not always fruitful – there were days that culminated in futility.
https://weetracker.com/2019/04/03/rwandan-entrepreneur-henri-nyakarundi/
Through these smart kiosks, ARED Group is able to offer Wi-Fi internet services to its customers within a range of 100 meters, people can charge their phones, access a whole range of digital services.
https://www.sautitech.com/startups/ared-group-smart-kiosks/
Henri Nyakarundi is the founder of Rwanda-Headquartered ARED Group. ARED stands for African Renewable Energy Distributors. The company describes itself as a HaaS, a “Hard-tech as a Service”. It recently expanded to Uganda making it its second market.
https://digestafrica.com/greentec-village-capital-henri-nyakarundi/#.XBPE0FVKiyo
African Renewable Energy Distributor (ARED) is a hard-tech company based in Rwanda and Uganda. It developed a business-in-a-box solar kiosk that offers customers phone charging and airtime top-up services, wifi, an intranet with free digital content and a Bluetooth printer. ARED leases the kiosks out through a franchise model.
https://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/journey-far-henri-nyakarundi-founder-ceo-ared-rwanda/
Born to refugee parents from Rwanda, he grew up in Burundi until civil war again forced the family to move on. Relocating to the US, Nyakarundi studied computer science at Georgia State University and by 19 had founded his first start up.
https://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/09/africa/ared-solar-charging-kiosk-henri-nyakarundi/index.html
African Renewable Energy Distributor (ARED) and EarthEnable are among the five global green finalists that are competing for the grand prize of 500,000 euro (about Rwf491.7m).
http://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/read/218141/
African Renewable Energy helps women and disabled people set up solar-powered mobile charging and wifi kiosks.
https://news.impactalpha.com/three-startups-empowering-women-get-colabs-backing-445cf6cca294
Entrepreneur Henri Nyakarundi created a “solar smart kiosk” out of frustration from his experiences struggling to find a place to charge his Blackberry in Rwanda. His solution was a stand-alone cart that runs on renewable energy and serves as a one-stop digital center for mobile phone users in semi-urban and rural areas.
https://www.devex.com/news/rwanda-s-solar-smart-kiosk-provides-digital-solutions-to-rural-mobile-phone-users-89956
The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates 585 million people in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity, with the electrification rate as low as 14.2% in rural areas.
The problem is most acute in East Africa, where only 23% of Kenyans; 10.8% of Rwandans; and 14.8% of Tanzanians have access to an electricity supply, according to the World Bank.
In spite of efforts to get people onto the grid, population growth has meant these figures stay fairly steady, with the majority of people still using costly and unhealthy forms of energy for cooking and lighting.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-30805419
A franchisee of the Mobile Solar Kiosk making use of the tablet provided to allow for the sales of services electronically. The kiosk is equipped with multiple ports to charge small electronics.
https://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/entrepreneur-on-building-his-mobile-phone-charging-kiosk-franchise-in-rwanda/47664/