BioLite, a member of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, recently secured $1.8 million in a financing led by the Disruptive Innovation Fund. BioLite is a New York-based company that develops, manufactures, and brings to market distributed energy solutions for rural consumers in lower-income countries. The BioLite HomeStove, which uses a patent-pending technology to generate electricity from its wasted heat, is the world’s first improved cookstove to achieve greater than 90% emissions reductions without reliance on external electricity sources. Additional electricity is made available to the end user to charge mobile phones and LED lights, augmenting economic value for the household and engaging men in the purchase decision.
Over the past two years, the BioLite HomeStove has been field-verified through trials in India, Ghana, Uganda and Guatemala. In 2012, BioLite will work with established distribution partners in India, Uganda, and Kenya to conduct large-scale marketing and sales pilots. BioLite is also working in Ghana with Columbia University’s School of Public Health to prove the pre-natal health benefits of the product. This program, backed by a $2.5 million grant from the NIH, will be the largest cooking-related health study of its kind.
BioLite has received multiple awards, including the 2011 St. Andrews Prize for the Environment, sponsored by Conoco‐Philips; recognition by Business Week as one of “America’s Most Promising” social enterprises; the 2010 Vodafone Innovation Prize (jointly with UC Berkeley); and first place in the 2010 Sustainable Brands Innovation Open. Forbes Magazine recently cited BioLite as a “Small Business Making a Big Social Impact,” and the company was also selected as a finalist in McKinsey on Society’s competition for social innovators. Visit biolitestove.com to learn more.
Source: Biolite
