Light of Hope Ph
In these Startup Profiles, we talked to the YSI SEA Fellows of the Innovation Programme 2020 and asked them about their startups, challenges and ideas for a more sustainable future.
Light Of Hope Ph is focused on improving the lives of the underprivileged, off-the-grid communities in the Philippines by helping them transition to clean renewable energy technologies combined with IOT sensor/data analytics at a very affordable rate with a long term sustainable impact.
Light of Hope Ph is one of the startups in our Innovation Programme 2020. We interviewed the Fellows behind Light of Hope PH: Jovie Gil Montajes and Simin Liu.
Watch the video below to see them talk about their startup in greater detail! Scroll down for the rest of the interview.
Jovie is a clean energy advocate with a degree in electronics and communications engineering.
He started Light of Hope PH in 2017 with the Solderless Solar Night Lamps in A Bottle project made by utilizing solar renewable energy and recyclable plastic bottles. He is also building a sustainable device that can power lights, e-fan and charge phones. This will be deployed to the less privileged off-the-grid communities.
When his family was unable to pay for the electricity bills, he personally experienced living in the dark for a few months. He also had to study under a kerosene lamp together with his sister in the province. These fueled his passion to help the poor communities to have access to clean energy and have a chance for a better life.
What made you interested in social impact?
Here in the Philippine provinces, there are a lot of remote areas and communities that don’t have access to electricity. I have made it my mission to do everything I can in my capacity to help them through the use of renewable energy technologies.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far in life?
The biggest challenge right now is how to continue what we are doing and also be sustainable at the same time.
How would you define success?
Success to me is not just about money. It’s about positive long term impact to the people’s lives in your society.
Simin is the lead Venture Analyst at Futurelab Ventures. Formerly with BCG, she was the founding team of the BCG Fintech Control Tower and headed the research and delivery arm in APAC. She moved on to a 6 month sabbatical to explore sustainability, and now joined FutureLabs, a corporate venture builder who partner with large corporates to ideate, validate, build, and invest in new ventures.
Can you tell us about your startup, Light of Hope Ph?
At Light of Hope Ph, we are focused on improving the lives of the underserved, off-the-grid communities across Southeast Asia, through the use of renewable energy technologies. The name Light of Hope came about because we started off with solar night lamps. However, right now, we are building on the wider use cases of energy as a whole.
What made you interested in social impact?
Despite being a city girl, I’ve always been drawn to the ocean, to marine biology, marine ecology and conservation. So I’ve done a lot of dive trips around Southeast Asia and that brought me closer to the impact of what we’ve done to the marine ecosystem. After spending 6 years in the finance world, I decided to take a career sabbatical. To be honest, I never looked back.
When I met Jovie through the YSI SEA Innovation Programme, we hit it off and connected instantly. I was drawn to his vision of addressing a brutal and critical systemic problem that exists in our society today - democratizing basic energy access to all.
On the premise that energy is the starting point of enabling humanity; since energy was found, that has always been the case. I believe that tackling this challenge is something that would drive real systemic impact.
Catch Jovie, Simin and the rest of the 23 regional impact entrepreneurs at the YSI SEA Demo Day 2020!
