Maria runs a small store feeding her family. She opens at six and closes when the generator runs out of fuel, usually around eight at night. In good months, 40% of her income goes to diesel; in bad months, she loses everything due to a voltage surge. She has been in business for 11 years without a bank loan because she lacks the records and tools.

This scenario is common: 60 to 90 million small retailers across emerging markets in Lagos, Nairobi, Dhaka, and Lima handle most local sales, keep communities supplied, but operate with unaffordable generators, poorly tracked stock, and are excluded from finance due to a lack of business proof.
Reliable solutions exist, like solar power, digital POS, and mobile lending, but they are disconnected, solar from one vendor, payments from another, POS from a third, without data sharing or proper integration. Often, installers lack technical training, causing hardware failures and trust issues. Maria needs an integrated system that unifies power, sales, and finance, tracking every kWh, sale, and payment to build a credit profile.

We built SolariHub, an all-in-one platform that replaces generators, digitises shops, and creates credit data, making small businesses more valuable to lenders and suppliers. We aimed not just to build a solar, fintech, or retail platform but the infrastructure 60 million retailers like Maria need.