Two students of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Andrea Sreshta and Anna Storck founded LuminAID Lab, a start-up that produces solar lanterns, inflatable floats. LuminAid Each lamp has a small built-in battery, a solar panel and LEDs, all wrapped in a plastic bag, which also features a handle for more convenient transport. Loaded under the sunlight for at least 4 hours, the lamp provides up to 8 hours of light. In a year of existence, the start-up has already won three business plan competitions, launched online sales, and provided thousands of copies to people in areas of the world affected by natural disasters. Since last May, the start-up LuminAID Lab became part of the Social New Venture Challenge, a competition organized by the Chicago Booth School of Business and its Center for Entrepreneurship, the Polsky Center, which recognizes start-ups with a strong social and human implications. With queso contest, the two students were able to present their business plan, earning a first place and a prize of $ 30,000 in cash. But the biggest funding has come from their crowdfunding campaign launched on the site IndieGoGo.com. Thanks to the campaign “Give Light, Get Light”, customers can spend 25 to 100 dollars to buy for themselves, or for those in need of the poor and rural areas of the world one or more lamps LuminAID. The result? 1,500 lamps sold in the first 40 days, and other lamps donated 3,300, for a total value of $ 50,000. Given the success of Andrea and Anna decided to distribute the lanterns donated by Internet to a dozen non-profit organizations, elementary schools and orphanages in developing countries. The greatest ambition of LuminAID Lab today is to be able to sell the lanterns to humanitarian organizations like the Red Cross or the United Nations.
