Formation 2009 Legal status Company Headquarters Hong Kong | Type Non-Profit Purpose Educational Technology Location Hong Kong | |
SolarLEAP is a company founded in Hong Kong with the mission of providing educational technology to impoverished students, specifically solar-powered computers. The company has worked on projects in Nepal, Ghana, the Philippines, India and Ethiopia.
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Operations
SolarLEAP provides proprietary solar-powered computers, pre-loaded with educational software, to schools in third-world countries. As of 2011, SolarLEAP had completed projects in 5 countries and had distributed more than 125 computers. The machines run on 12 volt power supplies connected to solar panels and, with 1.6GHz Intel Atom processors, 250GB of hard disk space and 2GB of RAM, are capable of supporting either Linux/Ubuntu or Windows operating systems.
History
SolarLEAP was founded in 2009 by Charles Watson, a young entrepreneur, during a gap year. Initially, Watson was the only member of the company, providing updates to a small circle of friends and family on his personal blog. However, his project quickly gained notoriety, and was noticed by Hong Kong NGO Sow Asia, which provided SolarLEAP with contacts in the non-profit industry and linked him up with support from significant corporations, such as Citi and Deutsche Bank.
With the initial challenges of starting a company conquered, Watson deferred his admission to the University of Illinois in favor of working to further establish SolarLEAP in the NGO community. The company grew in size and scope during 2010, expanding its operations to the Philippines, India and Ethiopia.