Acumen Fund

Lighting Solutions for Families

D.Light Design makes low-cost solar lights that provide cleaner, safer, and cheaper lighting to families living at the bottom of the pyramid.

More than 1.5 billion people in the world live without access to electricity. The United Nations Millennium Development Goals identify electricity as essential to eradicating poverty, calling for 500 million more people to be electrified by 2015.
Many households rely on kerosene lanterns and candles to meet their lighting needs, but these light sources are expensive, hazardous, polluting and produce low-quality light.

Taking advantage of the advances in light emitting diode (LED) technology, D.Light provides an economically and socially preferable alternative to kerosene lanterns, which are expensive, inefficient, dangerous, and low-quality sources of light. The company's first product series, the Nova, is an all-purpose portable LED lamp that is designed to provide brighter, safer and more affordable light for families without reliable electricity. It is both AC-rechargeable and solar-rechargeable, and can provide up to 40 hours of light on a full charge.
In addition to basic lighting solutions, D.Light's solar products provide energy efficient alternatives such as mobile phone charging.

By replacing a kerosene lamp with a D.Light, a consumer can expect to experience cost savings of up to $150 over five years; increased safety due to the elimination of accidental fires caused by kerosene lamps; better health due to the reduction of indoor air pollution; and increased productivity as household and livelihood enhancing activities such as studying can be performed at night.