Founder and chief executive, Desmond Williams, says the company offers a decentralised energy management system, enabling communities to generate, store and share renewable energy. 

The company offers unique long-term energy efficiency solutions for clients while guaranteeing optimum system performance and significant energy cost savings. 

“The problem is that alternative energy solutions are extremely costly, and millions don’t have R150,000 to R250,000 to fork out. We are here to bridge that gap,” he says.

Williams says the workshopping programme and the pitch experience have taught him business skills he will use for a lifetime. 

“Besides the great prizes, I am now well equipped to secure further funding for the future of our business.”

Greenshare’s vision is to ultimately offer:

• A platform comprising real time power control systems that will enable energy management and peer-to-peer energy trading via a secure transaction system, affording the customer an opportunity to earn credits through net metering.
• A digital currency token platform that is arranged into the microgrid communication network, and is configured to generate digital tokens. Using blockchain technology, a decentralised secure digital ledger will verify, authenticate and record transaction requests for electrical power units.
• A mobile application that allows customers to keep track of  the buying and selling of energy using a secure transaction system; real time visualisations of energy usage and transactions, and real time market place energy arbitrage.

The Energy Investment Village (EIV) is the Green Energy Africa Summit’s deal-pitching event for African clean-tech startups and energy projects, held in partnership with Saldanha Bay Innovation Campus, RIIS, Anza Capital, Africa Scotland Business Network, the JSE, OceanHub Africa, Savant, Firecracker, Sasol and Chieta.

The 10 finalists had five minutes each to make their pitch, and included: 

Therm: Pioneers in sustainable heating solutions, utilising innovative technologies to support efficient energy consumption.

AET Africa: An energy-efficiency startup producing an innovative product called the Hotspot Geyser.

Ceneco Green Power: Experts in developing and operating environmentally friendly power plants in the farming sector. 

Energy Cubes: Innovators in energy storage, offering scalable solutions for optimising power through the reuse of existing mine shafts.

Powerstove: Clean cooking innovators, providing efficient and clean-burning stoves for households and communities.

RG Revive Earth: Leaders in waste-to-energy conversion, turning organic waste into renewable resources while mitigating environmental impact.

ThinkBikes: Innovators in sustainable urban transportation, designing and manufacturing electric bicycles for ecoconscious commuters.

FLX EV: An electric mobility startup, bringing the first electric minibus and charging solution to South Africa.

Impact-free Water: Experts in wave-energy conversion technology.

“We are proud to again partner with the Energy Investment Village, and we congratulate Greenshare on their win,” said Kaashifah Beukes, chief executive of the Saldanha Bay Innovation Campus. 

“Their vision is perfectly in line with our own vision of using natural and engineered assets to tackle industry challenges, to create positive social impact. We wish them well on the next stage of their startup journey.”

The EIV offered a range of prizes including a Sasol R100,000 cash grant and supplier development programme, up to R5-million in VC funding from Savant, a JSE enterprise acceleration programme, a build-acceleration programme by Savant, membership to an international ASBN network worth R9,000, a workshop worth R25,000 from Firecracker, and free access to the 2024 Ocean Innovation Africa conference and training to the value of R140,000 from Chieta. DM