A trip with TRINE & BBOXX
Earlier in June our crowd-investor Anna and her husband Tobias went to Kenya to visit BBOXX and see the impact of an investment first-hand.
Here’s their story on what they experienced and the learnings they bring back:
Arriving an early Sunday morning to the busy city of Nairobi showed out to be a lucky move -traffic in the city is known for being crowded, and Sunday mornings are apparently a good time NOT to get caught in traffic!
In this city of more than 3 million inhabitants we got the chance to explore the Sunday by our own based from our little hideout-garden at Kiloran house and try to get a grip of a place very different to many other places we have ever travelled to. Feeding giraffes or taking an Uber for example -two totally new things to do for someone living in a mountain village in Northern Sweden!
Our meeting with TRINE took place on Monday at their office in a tall building where a lot of young tech-companies were situated. The many offices, meeting rooms and the IKEA-furnished café made for a well known and friendly vibe that you’ll probably find anywhere in the world where great ideas are in progress! This day also included the meeting with Joanne - the Managing Director of BBOXX Kenya, who made us feel welcomed and very excited about the next stop of our trip: The city of Kisumu by Lake Victoria.
Going to Kisumu with BBOXX
In Kisumu everything became very visual. From the day before where we sat down with Joanne to ask all our questions and to get the introducing of the company, to here in Kisumu where only 5 minutes away from the airport we stepped into the big bright blue warehouse that is the headquarter of BBOXX Kenya.
Under the same roof in this building everything happens. Here is the centre of repairs, all the administration, the call centre for support is on the top floor and there is also a big storage for all the physical products. We got invited to eat lunch with the staff which worked out as a good way to be introduced to the local cuisine and the ugali - a maize-dish you eat with pretty much every meal in Kenya.
The shops that keep it all running
If the HQ in Kisumu is the heart of the organisation in this area then all the different shops are for sure what keeps it pumping.
We got the opportunity to visit two different shops in villages not too far from Kisumu and we got the chance to get an even broader perspective of the business on a daily basis. Every shop works as a kind of a showroom and centre for the management for the operation connected to that particular shop. The managers here are employing sales agents who are connecting to the potential customers in their area and they also have technicians working with installations and repairs on the field. What cannot be fixed on site is sent through the shop to the repair centre in Kisumu and the customer gets to borrow an item or get another repaired second-hand product as a replacement. Nothing is considered as trash and the BBOXX-package comes with a “service-account” making sure no solar panel system is being left at a customers house unusable and useless.
Bring your electricity to the next home!
During our days following BBOXX, working out in the field with installations and by visiting existing customers, we got the very unique opportunity to get inside people’s homes to get to know a bit more about their situation and their decision to get an solar installation done.
If you are living just a bit off the main road in town - you’re probably off-grid. If you are renting your place to stay - then your landlord might not pay the bills and you’ll get cut off from the grid. And if you are living in an area that are in opposition to the ruling government - then you are also more unlikely to get hold of a grid that is working. And IF the electricity actually makes it all the way through a working grid and into your home, then it’s still more expensive and more unreliable than having your own panels and system from BBOXX. We also became aware of another upside of solar - if you decide to move you can bring your electricity with you to your next home!
Transparency in real life
From our experience within these very intense days with TRINE and BBOXX it feels like both are very honest organisations. To have the opportunity to follow an investment all the way from my E-wallet and through the entire operation at BBOXX, to actually sit on the roof at new customers home to install the system, is transparency in real life.
My (Anna) initial thought when making the first TRINE investment was that this felt like such a better way than keeping my money at a bank account where I have no clue what’s happening with my money physically. Maybe the bank has some kind of sustainability criteria or maybe they don’t. Either way - I have no real chance to see if the money are planting those promised trees or not.
A true investment
While visiting BBOXX it truly felt like I’ve made an investment. Visiting an almost empty storage in Kisumu and looking at empty shelves in the stores and knowing that the first BBOXX-loan was partly spent at filling those spaces up again with panels, batteries and TVs. And knowing that part of the loan is being used for opening up new shops in new areas makes us leave Kenya with the knowledge that this is an organisation that is growing at a fast pace, connecting more and more people living off-grid around the country. The BBOXX-system is giving you the possibility to get light without kerosene, light to study, lamps to lighten up and secure the dark nights outside of your door, the possibility to charge your phone and also to gather your neighbours to watch the World Cup on a solar powered TV!!
/ Anna & Tobias
www.jointrine.com
