It's been a big year for BuffaloGrid. Like everyone, we're reflecting on how far we have come in the last 12 months - the ups and downs, the successes and the challenges.
Here are the 10 Big Things that have happened for BuffaloGrid in the last 12 months.
⚡️ We launched our new BuffaloGrid Hub at WIRED Energy 2017. The best feature? We can make thousands of them.
🤖 We brought our old Hubs back to life as Hybrids (old body, new brains) and moved them from Karnataka to Uttar Pradesh in India, where we restarted operations in 15 villages and where we are selling power today.
📱 We integrated two new payment methods M-Pesa & Paytm, allowing our customers to pay using their mobile wallets by snapping a QR code.
🛒 We started selling Hubs direct to businesses with shops and agents in rural and urban India. We did this to help our business scale faster.
🔍 We were awarded a Design Foundations grant from InnovateUK to perform deep research on what our service would look like in a large urban city like Lagos or Delhi.
🏆 We were nominated for a Design of the Year Award. You can see our Hub on display at the London Design Museum from now until 28th January 2018.
👨🏻💻 We partnered with Microsoft Energy Access Initiatives, who provided technology and grant funding to help BuffaloGrid grow.
🌍 We received investment from Saul & Robin Klein's venture fund Local Globe and Kima Ventures, which was covered in TechCrunch.
👨👨👧👧 Our India team grew from 1 to 5, and our UK team grew from 7 to 9. We added remote operations support and in-field co-ordination capacity in India, and software development and manufacturing support in the UK.
🏢 We moved from our family home at InnovationRCA in Battersea to Plexal (Here East) in the Olympic Park in East London.