Zor Energy, an Indian start-up, is aiming to connect the rural, off-grid parts of India to electricity with a network of shareable batteries with a pay per use model.
It was formed by Rea Savla and Vishesh Mehta, who both studied at Harvard business school.
The company had started with an irrigation tool that uses solar energy. It had reliability issues, especially as the weather could vary, it said.
It also needed to be much more affordable.
The company figured out that it should instead focus its attention on making modular lithium-ion batteries.
These batteries are attached to software that can work on a variety of appliances in a rural setting. The batteries could be charged through solar and wind.
The system can apparently be used on appliances across all farm operations, such as grinding, milling, cold storage and transportation.
Rea Salva, co-founder, Zor Energy said to Harvard Business Review: “We didn’t want to rely on any brand subsidy or impose a large upfront cost on farmers, so we settled on a pay per use model. We take a fixed asset, and we spread out the cost across the community by sharing that asset. This way, we can bring down something that traditionally has a 10- to 20-year payback cycle down to a less-than-two-year cycle.”
Multiple issues have been faced by the small team at Zor, and this includes gaining the trust of the rural client-base who, she said, have been exploited before.
Zor’s hands-on approach has brought local communities to be more actively involved through informal networks and relationships, it told the FT.
But, it is hoping to standardise its batteries over this year, the company said.
