Technology Exchange Lab

TEL is dedicated to bringing communities out of poverty by driving the adoption of innovative, cost-effective and sustainable solutions that improve lives at the bottom of the pyramid.

We host a crowdsourced database of over 600 innovations in order to connect practical solutions to the people who need them most. Through our Project Accelerator service, we help NGOs and communities leverage appropriate technology solutions to maximize the impact of last-mile development.

A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, TEL was founded in 2009 by two alumni from the MIT Sloan School of Management. They identified a gap between existing technology-based solutions to problems of poverty, and countless NGOs, local entrepreneurs and developing world communities that lack the time and expertise to identify, assess and acquire appropriate solutions.

TEL closes that gap by empowering last-mile communities with actionable information and the freedom to choose solutions that best suit their needs. Going beyond a catalogue of products and methods, TEL leverages the creativity of innovators, partners and TEL’s own researchers and volunteers. The result: an up-to-date, curated and globally accessible center for proposing, discovering and sourcing practical technology solutions for the developing world.