Barefoot Power’s Barefoot Angels Fund has been named one of Australia’s most innovative products in the Anthill Magazine Smart 100 Index.
This accolade makes a hat trick for the social enterprise, as it has featured in the Smart 100 Index for 2009 and 2010 as well.
The Barefoot Angels Fund is a financial product allowing short-term asset lending to people in poor communities to pay for solar panels and LEDs. This fund is used instead of cash to help bring micro-financed energy to the poor in developing countries, Barefoot Power CEO Stewart Craine explained.
“Since the GFC, western investors — large and small — have heightened concerns about where their money is invested, and want to know that it’s creating real value in the world. Lending as a Barefoot Angel delivers an unbeatable double-digit return, social impact and environmental benefit via a clearly tangible product and result, with short exit periods of 6-12 months,” Mr Craine said.
About the Smart 100
The SMART 100 Index was created by leading business media channel Anthill Magazine in 2008 to identify and rank Australia’s 100 most innovative products, proving to be one of the largest surveys of its kind in Australia.
“In true Anthillian style, the SMART 100 is an ever-evolving, ever-improving experiment,” Anthill founder and Editor-In-Chief James Tuckerman said.
“It identifies and ranks new Australian innovations by applying a combination of crowdsourcing, collaboration and common-sense. We employ the judgement of ‘mavens’ and readers.
“Innovation is future focused. It is about identifying and solving problems in ways that will change the way we live, do business and think,” Mr Tuckerman added.
What is Anthill Magazine?
Anthill was initially launched as a print magazine, in September 2003 by James Tuckerman, who at the age of 26 quit his day job, departing a promising career in corporate PR, to pursue his own entrepreneurial journey.
Since then, it has evolved into one of Australia’s leading online communities for Australian business owners, ranked among the Top 50 Business & Finance websites in Australia by Nielsen Online Ratings. It is dedicated to innovation, entrepreneurship and the commercial development of Australian ideas.
To read about Barefoot Power’s 2010 win for the Smart Solar Desklamp visit: http://anthillonline.com/anthills-smart-100-winners-revealed-2010/
Or to see the 2009 Smart Index listing for Reversed Rural Electrification visit: http://anthillonline.com/smart-100-2009-profiles-11-20/
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