Nuru Energy was seed-funded by the World Bank in 2008, commercially financed by Bank of America Merrill Lynch and the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund in 2011 and currently operates in East Africa and India.

With an enduring commitment to solving the global problem of energy poverty, which affects over 2 billion people worldwide, Nuru Energy has developed a one-of-a-kind robust and simple-to-use off-grid recharging platform, the Nuru POWERCycle™ pedal generator.  The POWERCycle™ provides reliable clean, sustainable power anytime, anywhere and is hundreds of times more efficient than current solar-based solutions at a fraction of the cost.  It is used to recharge both mobile phones as well as Nuru Energy’s own portable modular LED lights, which can be recharged five at a time in 20 minutes, with each light providing up to 10 days of light to a rural household. 

The bottom-up approach is evident not only in every product that Nuru Energy develops, but also in the way that Nuru Energy delivers these products to market. Nuru Energy works with local organizations to recruit and train micro-franchise entrepreneurs, Nuru Energy Entrepreneurs, who sell Nuru’s LED lights to their community and then offer POWERCycle™ recharging services for a small fee, typically earning in 20 minutes what they previously earned in an entire day.

For its efforts, Nuru Energy has been recognized as the recipient of numerous global awards, including the prestigious 2010 UNEP Sasakawa Prize and the 2010 UNDP World Business and Development Award.