With the New Year we wanted to check in on Tenkiv.  They recently won the sustainability category at 2017 Sacramento Region Innovation Awards and earlier this year they held a 24/7 live stream of their crowdfunding campaign. So, after the final 1 million cups of 2017 we sat down with Arya and Joe of Tenkiv in Impact’s Sacramento office and learned about their 2017 and future plans.

Arya and Joe recently returned from Portugal, and are working on developing international and regional strategic partnerships so Tenkiv can begin manufacturing their Tenkiv Nexus. The Tenkiv Nexus uses Solar Thermal in a radical solution that can generate Electricity and Produce potable water. The Tenkiv Nexus can provide multiple solutions to developing regions without access to developed infrastructure and people looking to rely less traditional infrastructure.

Tenkiv is exploring strategic partnerships with four groups. Locally they are looking at bootstrapping and using multiple vendors to manufacture parts then assemble them in California. However, Tenkiv knows this is not scalable so the additional partnerships are to support scalable growth. They have an agreement with Rettig to explore manufacturing and their trip to Portugal had them meeting with the European Union and Portugal Government exploring grant opportunities part of the Horizon 2020  program to bring sustainable development to under-served areas.  In the US they are looking at a partnership with a Fortune 500 company.

While we are excited about everything happening with Tenkiv we are rooting for them to stay local. The Tenkiv Nexus fits with SMUDs Zero Carbon footprint goals, it fits perfectly on tiny homes, the water and power solutions can make growing copious amounts of marijuana more efficient, and it would be a hit at burning man.