PayGo Energy
PayGo Energy enables affordable access to modern and clean cooking fuel and technology.
While working in an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya, PayGo Energy’s founding team noticed that households spend more money to cook with dirty fuels, like charcoal and kerosene, than they would on clean fuels like LPG. However, the cost barrier to access clean cooking systems are prohibitively high for the nearly 3 billion people who use dirty fuels. PayGo Energy leverages smart metering and data, pay-as-you-go financing, and a mobile interface to allow user to access a modern LPG two-burner stove and fuel tank. As a subscriber, the user texts their payment for the amount of fuel they need to cook on a daily basis. PayGo spent the bulk of 2016 mapping user interaction with their initial prototype and gathering input on usability and what information to communicate to customers. What began as a challenge to improve product-market fit by selling gas in small quantities, has now become a journey to revolutionize distribution to unlock access to gas for the next billion users.