StreamSpot+

BuffaloGrid is solving the digital divide, where 4 billion people have never experienced the Internet. Yet, 3.4 billion people have access to 3G and 4G. Connecting the unconnected has nothing to do with coverage. 

1. Affordability
2. Consumer readiness
3. Lack of relevant content
4. Poor power infrastructure

Power and Internet access are the most basic utilities and essential for development and education, yet are still unavailable to more than half of the planet’s population.

Correspondingly, two thirds of the world’s school-age children do not have internet connection in their homes. 
According to the Multiple-Indicator Cluster Survey by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics in 2019, 62 per cent of the households in Bangladesh do not have internet access. 
At the same time, this is a national average, and there is a large difference in internet access depending on the households’ socioeconomic backgrounds. Only 8.7 per cent of the poorest 20 per cent households in Bangladesh have internet access at home as compared with 75.3 percent of the richest 20 per cent households.

This vast difference in internet access is exacerbating the digital divide, our solution levels the playing field.

BuffaloGrid’s mission is to remove Internet adoption barriers with a low cost, highly scalable and user friendly solution: the StreamSpot+. 

Each StreamSpot+ Hub enables free access to mobile device charging and offers carefully selected, regionally relevant offline streaming and digital educational services. 

The stand-alone Hub is solar powered and can charge 10 mobile devices at a time, while providing access through the StreamSpot+ App to flawless streaming and downloading of pre-loaded content through the offline wifi provided by the Hubs. Thousands of hours of locally curated content are available in the form of video, audio and text files and cover education, healthcare, entertainment and sports. 

The Hub includes an LTE modem so that it can be configured and updated using BuffaloGrid’s Cloud platform.
The Hubs also use this connectivity to provide regular data and metrics on performance, usage and engagement. Even in low coverage level areas, access to digital content is flawless and offering new, updated and trending content and digital services is possible.

BuffaloGrid’s solution targets users who are underserved and unconnected in remote and peri-urban areas in developing countries, particularly those who need access to educational resources.

Bangladesh already has multiple pre-established learning platforms such as Konnect, Repto Education and Robi’s Ten Minute School but the majority of students are deprived of access to these resources.

Our solution will help some of the approximately 15 million Bangladeshi school children without internet access at home, those who are being left behind as the digital divide widens.

1. Clean power
2. The skills needed to function in the digitised 21st century
3. Increased engagement
4. Topics such as literacy, language learning, healthcare

all completely free of charge.

BuffaloGrid employs in-country teams who work closely with communities deprived of their access to digital resources, such as communities engaged in early childhood development, informal employment sectors, and residents of remote regions facing challenges in connectivity. 

The different functions of the team consist of hub deployment, community engagement and technical support, and they will collect metrics on content and training assessments and monitor & evaluate learnings of both students and teachers. Interacting with local teachers and influencers in children’s lives is very important to us. The team will work closely with teachers in secondary school to support the students to better benefit from digital content. This will increase their traffic through engaging with the content, under the teacher’s guidance.

We have over 30 content partners, including Khan Academy, Astrid Education, Kolibri, Sesame Workshop, Open University, Z Notes, Global Dimension (All Global) 10 Minute School, Teach for Bangladesh, Let’s Read, BBC Janala (All Bangladesh).

Support and exposure provided by winning this award will help BuffaloGrid impact the lives of over 10m people at the bottom of the economic pyramid. Access to phone charging and digital services will level the playing field as the developing world recovers after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our solution is globally scalable, and access to strategic advice from Solve’s wide range of experts will be invaluable as we enter new territories. This could help us scale and access more deployment locations, and open our network - resulting in improved quality content and development.

No other service that we have identified provides both power and digital services to our users completely free of charge.

 Several power providers and Internet providers exist, but our innovation allows customers a flawless content experience without the need for Internet connection.

The solution is unique beyond connectivity:

• Business Model - Collaboration with Mobile Network Operators allows us to provide free charging. We can also white-label the solution for MNOs or co-brand.
• Hardware Ownership - We retain ownership of all hardware, can invest in high quality components and have greater control over EoL to combat eWaste (major issue in current systems).
• Village Approach - Our units serve communities, not just individual households, unlike competitors. Often in shops, Hubs can service up to 1000 users.

In the next 12 months we will deploy 500 Hubs, serving over a quarter of a million unique users who were previously excluded from the socio-economic benefits of connectivity. This includes Hubs provided to refugee camps in Kenya and Uganda through our partnership with Techfugees, an organisation that creates a sustainable ecosystem of tech solutions supporting the inclusion of displaced people.

Refugees and displaced children face a clear learning gap as they experience forced movement from their home. Allowing them access to education services through our Hub’s content - no matter how remote they may be -  will bridge the learning gap so they can thrive and succeed. The education content we provide serves all ages from 5-18 and beyond. From Khan Academy education to hireable skills training resources, our content supports the long term success of diverse learners.

In 5 years time we will have 50,000 Hubs deployed serving 30 million users. We will also have developed our new Digital Services ID and Digital Storage for the unconnected.

Our cloud platform is capable of measuring the number of unique users, how often they use the service, and how many become premium.

How Impact Is Measured
BuffaloGrid's cloud platform continuously collects granular usage data for data-driven decisions and analysis.
This shows-

• Number of users accessing free power/streaming
• Number of users accessing Premium content
• Quantity of health/education streams/downloads compared to entertainment/sport

We have partnered up with a group of professors / researchers from University College London, Trinity College Dublin and University of Pavia to create an Impact Evaluation of our services. These evaluations will be done for all of our deployments.

Underserved energy users are provided access to a source of reliable, free, and clean electricity.  By providing charging at local Hubs, users are able to travel significantly less to charge their phones, freeing them to spend the time more productively, especially for learning. 

Whilst charging their devices, students or their parents can download lessons or other educational content to be consumed at home.
This content contains the knowledge, skills and attitudes that allow children to be both safe and empowered in an increasingly digital world.
As well as digital literacy they can learn foundational skills such as literacy and numeracy, and older children can equip themselves with technical and vocational skills.

Digital education enables teachers to pace learning according to individual needs and facilitates the acquisition of cognitive skills at the level of each learner’s ability.
Digital education methodologies such as game-based learning offer opportunities for teachers to increase learner engagement with subject matter and thereby improve learners’ performance. 
In addition, access to varied and current content allows learners to not only enhance their knowledge, but also to develop their ability to engage critically with information.

The Hub is BuffaloGrid’s core technology, a digital kiosk based on a powerful applications processor enclosed in a rugged case. A high-level overview of the hardware feature set of the hub includes:

• Quad-core processor
• 7” touch screen
• IP64 rated enclosure
• 10 USB charge ports 
• Li-ion battery pack
• Solar photovoltaic panel
• LTE modem
• Wi-Fi access point
• Bluetooth
• GNSS
• High capacity storage for content

We offer access to digital services that are preloaded in our hubs and made available through wifi. Users can stream/download all the content we make available without any connection to the internet whatsoever. Our hubs need a cellular data connection in order to:

• Report status;
• Report aggregated user data;
• Receive software/configuration updates;
• Download new content.

Our hub is designed to move large files bit by bit and to handle intermittent connections and power outages. Only once all parts of an asset are fully downloaded is it made available to users of the hub. This approach allows us to provide new digital content to users, even in areas where cellular data speeds and reliability would prevent the use of traditional streaming services.

BuffaloGrid hubs are based on an embedded computing platform that supports modern security best-practice features to prevent tampering and prevent data theft from the device. With regards to video content specifically, we have partnered with an established Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology provider so that each of our hubs can act as a full DRM licence server, even when not connected to the internet.

The BuffaloGrid hub offers additional features aimed at longer term and commercial deployments. There features include:

• IP rated enclosure.
• Secure content storage and delivery using industry standard digital rights management technology.
• Best practice security features around system, application and data protection.
• Integrated over the air update solution for firmware, operating system, applications and content.
• Integration with BuffaloGrid’s cloud platform, allowing monitoring, data collection and content management to be performed remotely.
• A dedicated development and support team to add new features and integrations.

BuffaloGrid considers all forms of discrimination to be unacceptable in the workplace. It is the policy of the company to provide equal opportunities throughout employment, including remuneration, recruitment and the training and promotion of all employees. This means that all job applicants and employees will receive equal treatment regardless of race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, sex, mental or physical disability, age, religion or belief, marital or civil partner status, sexual orientation or gender reassignment. 

In our recent recruitment rounds, we have combated bias by ensuring our job descriptions are gender neutral. We have worked closely with our recruitment partners to ensure that 50% of our candidates are female - and our first members of staff recruited in both Bangladesh and Nigeria have been female.

Our management team has weekly one-on-one sessions with their team members. These sessions are safe spaces for employees to speak their mind honestly and openly.
The BuffaloGrid team is made up of team members in Bangladesh, Nigeria, India, Vietnam, Europe and South America with differing cultural backgrounds. To ensure our employees are satisfied and supported, we offer floating holidays to accommodate any religious preferences they may have.
The company seeks to fulfil this commitment to equal opportunities through the application of policies and procedures which are consistent and equitable and which recognise the expertise and ability of each individual.

We have 3 Business model and Go to Market strategies:

Commercial: For places like peri-urban and rural Bangladesh or Nigeria. Places with high population density, high mobile penetration, low infrastructure and a significant part of the population living with little resources.
We partner up with Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) who provide us with a list of locations where they have retailer shops selling airtime and SIM cards. They provide us with SIM cards and data plans for our hubs. In return, they can use our services to push digital advertisements and promotions and we provide access to our data dashboard where they can see the performance of our hubs. 
All users receive free device charging and content streaming. They are also able to download the Education and Health content totally free of charge. If they want to download Sport or Entertainment content then they subscribe to the Premium Service for approximately $1 per month.

Funded: For schools, refugee camps, settlements, governments, NGOs and
emergency relief scenarios. With this model, we provide our service completely for free, including our Premium Service to all users.
The funding received as donation or payment will pay for the Hubs and for the Cloud Service that allows the hubs to perform and be monitored.

Revenue Share: We are exploring franchise models where we could provide the hardware and software and the franchisee can run the operations.

We have raised almost $8 million to date through angel investors and grants. This has covered the development to date, the early pilots and field trials, and will also fund the deployment of further Hubs later this year.

Our low-cost, stand-alone devices allow for plenty of opportunity to scale. At a cost of $800/unit, with 15% of 600 users adopting Premium Service, a device will earn $100/month and break even less than a year after deployment.

We have raised almost $4.5 million to date through equity investment, and a further $3.4 million in grants including:

• $750,000 from Innovate UK
• $2 million from H2020
• $285,000 from Microsoft