The people
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Working at Soular
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On the TechTO stage
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About
Salima Visram grew up on the outskirts of a village near Mombasa where 22,000 people lived below the poverty line, and started Soular after seeing a boy studying by the naked flame of a kerosene lamp. The product was deliberately simple and child-centric: a backpack that charges as a child walks to school and gives them light to study by that night. Visram told the TechTO stage in December 2016 that manufacturing had just moved to East Africa so the jobs stayed local. She now runs SAMARA. The Soular sites no longer resolve.
Backers
No disclosed venture funding found; ran as a social enterprise
Quick answers
What was the Soular Backpack?
A backpack with a solar panel that charged while a child walked to school, giving them light to study by at night instead of a kerosene lamp.
Why did it matter?
Visram told the TechTO audience that kerosene lamps burn down villages when knocked over, that families living on a dollar a day spent up to a quarter of their income on kerosene, and that children without light simply could not do homework.
Is Soular still running?
Its websites no longer resolve and founder Salima Visram now runs SAMARA. No public account of when it wound down was found.