Cleantech takes over consumer markets

enabling drivers
4. Breakthrough of BoP (Bottom of the Pyramid) business
models
COMPANIES
Energy production: Energalis, M-Kopa Solar, d.light,
SolarKiosk
Clean Water: Nanomaji
Bottom of Pyramid market refers to the poorest 4 billion people
in the world who earn less than 1500 dollars per year. For a decade
now, companies have been pursuing BoP customers, hoping to
capture the business potential in this vast market and looking to
succeed in marrying profits with solutions for poverty. The demand
for basic commodities such as clean water and power is massive, and
companies are looking to provide these while creating consumption
patterns that would not add an extra strain on our environment.
Due to economy becoming continuously more global, the $5
trillion BoP markets (WRI, 2007) are being opened. This is not only
because of technological innovations, but combinations of them and
new business models. The spending habits and abilities of the most
economically disadvantaged differ radically from the advantaged:
the disadvantaged do not have savings and they need to buy what
they get – exactly when they need it. BoP markets are best tapped
by getting closer to the customer and creating an ecosystem instead
of pushing a narrow product (Prahalad & Hart, 2002). Micronizing
goods and services and using ICT to connect the scattered market
are examples of how to reach the BoP market.
5. Emergence of as-a-service business models
COMPANIES
Mobility-as-a-Service: Tuup
Housing-as-a-Service: The Collective
Living and sharing economy: Nifty Neighbor
A shift from ownership to subscription is already a well recognised
trend in the digital world, where software has increasingly moved
from hard disks to the cloud. In short, X-as-a-Service business
models (XaaS) offer us goods that were once bought in a new way:
as demand-based services. At the moment, The XaaS model is expanding
beyond software.
The XaaS model is trending towards convergence. In the field
of mobility, for example, this means that several mobility solutions,
such as taxis, buses, trams and shared cars are now accessed
through one platform. Such mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) platforms
are being developed around the world, in Finland by emerging startups
such as Tuup and, on the other hand, a consortium of over 20
public and private partners (including Uber) are developing MaaS
solutions (HSL, 2015).
The XaaS model is a form of consumer cleantech because it
changes ownership and makes usage of different resources more
demand-based and thus more effective. Most XaaS models are based
on consumer interfaces: the consumer uses an interface that gives
access to a given good or service. Taken further, the convergence
trend means that a single platform could be used for mobility as
well as housing and other services. This sort of development is in
line with the rise of platform economy, which refers to an ever-more
stronger position of the dominating platform providers such as
Facebook, Amazon, Elance, and Uber.
Cleantech takes over consumer markets 16