Lumen Sparse Demo.

Access to electricity remains one of the biggest barriers to economic mobility in Latin America. Lumen was founded in 2020 by two engineers who grew up in off-grid communities in Colombia's Pacific coast. Our hardware-software stack includes a solar panel, a smart battery controller, and an SMS-based payment system that works without a smartphone. Today we operate in 3 countries — Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru — serving more than 12,000 households. Families use Lumen to power lights, fans, and phone chargers, and our data shows a 60 % increase in study hours among children in homes we serve. Our revenue model is a lease-to-own subscription: customers pay weekly or monthly until the system is paid off, at which point ownership transfers to them. Default rates are under 4 % thanks to remote monitoring and community-ambassador networks.