Paul Needham

Paul Needham is president and co-founder of Simpa Networks, which works to make modern energy simple, affordable and accessible to everyone. Addressing underserved consumers in emerging markets such as India, Simpa is pioneering a pay-as-you-go pricing model for solar energy. Simpa’s customers make a small initial down payment for a high-quality solar system and then pre-pay for the energy service, topping up their systems in small increments using a mobile phone. Payments for energy also add toward the final purchase price. Once fully paid, the system unlocks permanently and produces energy, free and clear. Simpa helps transform a daily expenditure for energy into the purchase of a highly valued asset that would otherwise be unaffordable.

Fellow 2011 Social Innovation Fellows
Fellow PopTech 2011

Tags: Energy Development Social Innovation Fellows 2011 Social Innovation Fellows social innovation poptech 2011

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Archived blog posts

PopTech Editions II: The micro-everything revolution video playlist

Recently, PopTech launched its second Edition, Small is beautiful: The micro-everything revolution. Our Editions explore an emerging theme at the edge of change from the perspective of some of the remarkable innovators shaping it. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been highlighting pieces from contributors who are exploring the dynamics of the micro-everything …

This week in PopTech: Pay-as-you-go solar and DIY toasters

Image-wise: PopTech portraits from Alphachimp's Perrin Ireland

PopTech friend Perrin Ireland of Alphachimp Studios sketched portraits of PopTech 2011 speakers and Fellows in action, and we’ve compiled these pieces into a slideshow for your viewing pleasure. Read more »

Social Innovation Fellow spotlight: Krista Donaldson & Paul Needham

The Social Innovation Fellows have always been crowd favorites at PopTech. As Andrew Zolli said when introducing the program, it’s impossible to be cynical around these people who are working so hard to better the world.

This morning we met two entrepreneurs who are both working to improve the lives of people living under $4 (and in some cases much less) a day.

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Meet the 2011 Social Innovation Fellows: Paul Needham

We’ve recently announced our Class of 2011 Social Innovation Fellows and we’re excited to share the diversity of their world-changing work with the PopTech community. To learn more about this new crop of Fellows, we posed one question to each of them: In one sentence, what is your work’s projected impact when it reaches scale?

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This week in PopTech: Timelines, profiles and small fixes

There’s always something brewing in the PopTech community. From the world-changing people, projects and ideas in our network, a handful of this week’s highlights follows.

Designer Nicholas Felton (PopTech 2009) has caused a stir with the "Timeline" Facebook profile released earlier this week. FastCo Design explores how Felton inspired the …Read more »

Welcoming the Social Innovation Fellows Class of 2011

PopTech is proud to announce the Social Innovation Fellows Class of 2011!

This year’s Fellows are spearheading a compelling set of solutions to global challenges. They are reconnecting refugee families, helping people become “makers” of their own technology, improving local food production and distribution, and getting to the heart of measuring …

Find more at poptech.org/ blog