Top Third Ventures

Privately Held Company
Industry Carbon offset projects,
Data Analysis and
Carbon Credit trading
Founded 2011, Mauritius
Area served
 149 countries of operation
Key people
 Lucas Belenky (CEO)[1]
Björn Hammar (Chairman)[2]
Services Data Tracking
Customer Data Analysis
Carbon Credits
Website topthirdventures.com

Top Third Ventures is a limited liability company headquartered in Mauritius with a subsidiary registered in Kenya that deals mainly with carbon credits and Bottom of the Pyramid consumer segmentation. The company provides financiers, manufacturers, and distributors of efficient cook stoves access to carbon finance through its carbon credit programme, a mobile data tracking solution through the Android mobile app Top3 TrackerTM,[3] and a data analysis tool Top3 Data PortalTM.

History

Top Third Ventures was founded on 9 November 2011, by Lucas Belenky[1] and Björn Hammar[2] in Nairobi, Kenya. Björn Hammar, a Finnish national, met Lucas Belenky, a United States national, several months before during a professional hiatus while traveling through sub-Saharan Africa. During his trip Björn was exposed to different types of social impact companies operating out of Africa and became particularly interested in social enterprise through efficient cook stoves and carbon credits. A chance meeting with an efficient cook stove designer led to an introduction to Lucas who was a senior associate with KPMG East Africa’s Sustainability Advisory Services at the time. Björn and Lucas had their first meeting at the Westgate shopping mall where they quickly realized they had similar convictions about development, entrepreneurship, and meeting global challenges through enterprise. Their shared belief that a for-profit approach is the most cost-effective way to solve societal problems is embodied in Top Third Ventures.[4]

Originally, Top Third Ventures main business was to design, market, and sell an efficient cook stove with brand name Baker[5] for the rural consumer market in Kenya. Two additional business divisions to grow out of the direct sale of the Baker cook stove: the Business-To-Business division providing other cook stove manufacturers and distributors access to carbon finance and the Big Data division. All three aspects of the business complimented each other and contributed to Top Third Ventures’ vision[6] of widespread efficient cook stove use in the developing countries. The retail sale of the Baker cook stove below cost of production was possible through carbon financing. Top Third Ventures registered the Top Third Ventures Stove Programme, a program of activities under the Clean Development Mechanism of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The programme was registered on 27 December 2012[7] and allows Top Third Ventures to earn Certified Emissions Reductions from cook stove activities for a 28-year period. To streamline the realization of carbon credits, track sales, and achieve market segmentation, a mobile app was set up on Android and linked to a backend data visualization and data analysis tool. The application is branded Top3 TrackerTM. Top3 TrackerTM is available free-of-charge to any manufacturer or distributor of efficient cook stoves. The aggregation of large amounts of cookstove user data is the foundation of Top Third Ventures’ Big Data division, which could grow to cover millions of Bottom-of-the-Pyramid consumers in developing countries.

Top Third Ventures market entry strategy was through its own Baker cook stove. Claesson Koivisto Rune developed the design of the Baker cookstove to emphasize aesthetic appeal, usability, and cultural conformity. In early 2013 the first 200 Baker cook stoves were manufactured In Nairobi and sold through Top Third Ventures’ flagship store in Laikipia County, Kenya.[8] The cook stoves were sold from a refurbished shipping container and the sales team was composed on local village motorcycle taxis that were given sample products. The Baker cook stoves were sold for a retail price of $25.[9] Sales data and customer information was recorded through Top3 TrackerTM.

After encountering quality problems in the domestically produced Baker cookstoves and unable to raise working capital to establish production overseas at sufficient economies of scale, Top Third Ventures focused on the Business-to-Business and Big Data divisions of the company by working with existing financiers, manufacturers, and distributors of cook stoves around the developing, to provide them access to Top Third Ventures’ carbon credit programme and mobile app.

On 12 September 2012, Top Third Ventures Global was incorporated in Mauritius as a limited liability company. The restructuring reduced the exposure of Top Third Ventures’ operations to political risk from the upcoming Kenyan General Election, 2013.

Business model

Through TTV’s carbon credit programme, Top Third Ventures Stove Programme, registered with the UNFCCC, the company reduces the cost of accessing carbon finance and lowers the time required to certify an efficient cook stove activity for carbon finance. The company’s potential clients are the hundreds entities manufacturing or distributing efficient cook stoves across developing countries. The Top3 TrackerTM tool is tailored to the collection of Bottom-of-the-Pyramid consumer data compliments the carbon credit programme by reducing the cost of monitoring helps application users scale their business by increasing their understanding of their customer.

Top3 TrackerTM is a tool for all organizations working with Bottom-of-the-Pyramid consumers, but especially designed for efficient cookstove distributors, to reduce the cost of monitoring and earn carbon credits. The Top3 Tracker is designed by Top Third Ventures.

Top Third Ventures intends to increase access for SMEs and organizations in the cook stove industry to carbon finance by sharing the revenue risk with its clients by receiving a percentage of the carbon credit revenue in return for provided a comprehensive solution that takes the client through every step of realizing carbon credit revenue.[10]

Innovations

  1. Top3 TrackerTM
  2. Top3 Data PortalTM
  3. Top Third Ventures Carbon Calculator
The Carbon Calculator is a web application developed by Top Third Ventures to estimate the expected carbon credit revenue for a manufacturer or distributor of efficient cook stoves. The calculator is utilizes MySQL, HTML, and Ajax programming through JavaScript to push and pull data in real-time. An extensive algorithm is used to calculate the expected carbon credits, carbon credit revenue, and Net Present Value of pursuing carbon finance.
The Carbon Calculator queries Yahoo’s open currency market API in real-time through Top Third Ventures’ backend solution and pulls the data for every calculation. The input required from the user is limited to the efficiency of the cook stove, projected annual sales, cook stove durability, and country of operation. The Carbon Calculator then presents the user the anticipated revenue and Net Present Value in local currency. The web application is a unique solution that allows everyone to better understand how carbon finance can benefit the efficient cook stove industry. The Carbon Calculator[11] is accessible on Top Third Ventures website[11]

Management team

Top Third Ventures’ senior management team consists of Lucas Belenky and Björn Hammar. They have significant ownership in the company, controlling 46.7% and 43.5%, respectively.

Countries of operation

List of Countries
 Albania Chad Grenada Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Oman Suriname
 Algeria Chile Guatemala Macedonia Pakistan Swaziland
 Angola China Guinea Madagascar Palau Syrian Arab Republic
 Antigua and Barbuda Colombia Guinea-Bissau Malawi Panama Tajikistan
 Argentina Comoros Guyana Malaysia Papua New Guinea Tanzania, United Republic of
 Armenia Congo Haiti Maldives Paraguay Thailand
 Azerbaijan Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Honduras Mali Peru Timor-Leste
 Bahamas Cook Islands India Marshall Islands Philippines Togo
 Bahrain Costa Rica Indonesia Mauritania Qatar Tonga
 Bangladesh Cote d'Ivoire Iran Mauritius Rwanda Trinidad and Tobago
 Barbados Cuba Iraq Mexico Saint Kitts and Nevis Tunisia
 Belize Djibouti Israel Micronesia, Federated States of Saint Lucia Turkmenistan
 Benin Dominica Jamaica Moldova, Republic of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Tuvalu
 Bhutan Dominican Republic Jordan Mongolia Samoa Uganda
 Bolivia Ecuador Kazakhstan Montenegro Sao Tome and Principe United Arab Emirates
 Bosnia Egypt Kenya Morocco Saudi Arabia Uruguay
 Botswana El Salvador Kiribati Mozambique Senegal Uzbekistan
 Brazil Equatorial Guinea Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Myanmar Serbia Vanuatu
 Brunei Darussalam Eritrea Korea, Republic of Namibia Seychelles Venezuela
 Burkina Faso Ethiopia Kuwait Nauru Sierra Leone Viet Nam
 Burundi Fiji Kyrgyzstan   Nepal Singapore Yemen
 Cambodia Gabon Lao People's Democratic Republic Nicaragua Solomon Islands Zambia
 Cameroon Gambia Lebanon Niger South Africa Zimbabwe
 Cape Verde Georgia Lesotho Nigeria Sri Lanka
 Central African Republic Ghana Liberia Niue Sudan

References

  1. 1 2 "CMU Alumnus Launches Cookstove Project Empowering Rural Women in Africa; Crowdsource Funding Underway -Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship - Carnegie Mellon University". Archived from the original on 2014-04-29. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  2. 1 2 David South, E.W.; Rolfsdottir, S. (2014). Southern Innovator Magazine Issue 5: Waste and Recycling: Improving Human Development with Finite Resources. p. 47. ISBN 9780992021719. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  3. ↑ "Top3 Tracker - Android Apps on Google Play". play.google.com. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  4. ↑ Mathew Juma O (Athias Avians). "About | What We Do | Top Third Ventures". topthirdventures.com. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  5. ↑ "Baker : Energy Efficient Cookstove". bakerproduct.com. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  6. ↑ Mathew Juma O (Athias Avians). "Home | Top Third Ventures". topthirdventures.com. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  7. ↑ United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. "CDM: Top Third Ventures Stove Programme". cdm.unfccc.int. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  8. ↑ "The first Baker Stove store opened on March 29th, 2013 in Kenya, specifically…". plus.google.com. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  9. ↑ "A Simple, Elegant Stove To Make Cooking Safer In Africa | Co.Exist | ideas + impact". fastcoexist.com. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  10. ↑ "The Top Third Ventures Stove Programme is a Market Entry Opportunity into the Global Carbon Credit Market" (PDF). 1 March 2015. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  11. 1 2 Mathew Juma O (Athias Avians). "Carbon Calculator | Top Third Ventures". topthirdventures.com. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
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