Atutu
Venture Overview
Atutu provides tiered solar energy solutions to off-grid communities, paired with wealth-based subsidies and payment programs to reduce energy inequities. Founder Lin Thu Hein, who grew up in an off-grid community in Myanmar before immigrating to the United States, brings firsthand experience of marginalized energy systems. Atutu promotes community-led energy access and social change.
Website: www.atutu.org/
Venture Issue Area: Energy & Water
Venture Headquarters: Colma, CA
Venture Founder
Lin is co-founder and Executive Director of Atutu, a nonprofit organization promoting community-led social change. Born and raised in Kachin State, Myanmar, Lin immigrated to the United States at the age of 13. Growing up in an off-grid community that received humanitarian and development assistance, Lin had firsthand experience of the role NGOs and government programs played in the lives of marginalized communities.
Lin earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from University of California San Diego, during which he was immersed in the fields of international development and social innovation. Prior to Atutu, Lin worked in the solar microgrid industry, where he has accelerated access to electricity and internet connectivity for communities around the world. Relying on his lived experience of growing up in an off-grid community and his technical experience from the energy sector, Lin founded and fostered Atutu to promote community-led development in an anti-colonialist and equitable manner. Lin received the Echoing Green Fellowship in 2021 for Atutu’s work in addressing energy inequities faced by marginalized communities in Myanmar.
