The Monroe Street Journal

Issue date: 2/11/08 Section: Inside Ross

From this point, Mozergy has a bright future. The Mozergy team is currently refining their plan to enter in business plan competitions at Berkeley's Haas School of Business and Rice University. Mozergy has also sought funding and grants from different bodies. Team members said the money will be used to fund an initial trip to Mozambique and also to help set-up the basic infrastructure for the company.

In addition from support from universities, KLI has offered to meet with the team in New York to develop and refine their business plan and actually put it into place. KLI's experience will provide Mozergy a solid foundation to develop into a profitable company built upon the principles of healthy governance and corporate social responsibility. Interestingly, Mozergy's efforts might bear fruit sooner than expected - the energy company Imperium Renewables has already expressed interest in purchasing the biofuel produced from the Jatropha plant.

Creating and pitching Mozergy's business plan was no doubt tough, and Mozergy is still far from becoming fully operational. Paul Kirsch, Program Manager for The Zell-Lurie Institute, summed up the team's accomplishments by saying, "Their plan demonstrates excellent work by the team, but more importantly, it has real potential to positively impact an impoverished population. The four-person team put in a lot of work on the project…We hope that this proposed business will be started to significantly benefit people in Mozambique."

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