Back when The Charcoal Project was a getting its web chops we covered what we thought was a fantastic idea from a startup company called BioLite. The idea was simple: produce a stove that can reduce emissions, cut down on fuel use while also charging a cell phones or power other small electronics. We’re thrilled to see the company finally get some respect. Congratulations BioLite!
BioLite Receives $1.8 Million Series A Financing
Energy access social enterprise secures commercial backing
Brooklyn, NY, December 12, 2011—BioLite LLC announced today that it has secured $1.8 million
in a Series A financing led by the Disruptive Innovation Fund, with additional investment from a
member of the Toniic Network and angel investors. 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 company’s first products are cookstoves that generate electricity
from their waste heat in order to power emissions reductions and charge mobile phones.
“We design effective, desirable products that bring safe, affordable energy access to off‐grid
markets around the world,” said CEO Jonathan Cedar, who founded BioLite in 2009. Cedar, along
with other company leaders, previously worked at Smart Design, the internationally‐acclaimed
product development consultancy known for designing products like OXO Good Grips and the Flip
video camera. At BioLite, the team now works to solve major global challenges using a marketbased
approach that integrates advanced technology into affordable, effective, user‐centered
products.
“Today, 3 billion people in places like India and Sub‐Saharan Africa are cooking on toxic, smoky
fires, walking miles to gather fuel, and lighting their homes with expensive kerosene lamps,” Cedar
said. Smoke from indoor cooking kills nearly 2 million people every year and is also a major
contributor to global warming. A combination of new technology, innovative financing models,
and international support such as the UN Foundation‐led effort to enable 100 million households
to adopt clean and efficient cookstoves and fuels by 2020, now suggest that death and disease
from indoor cooking could be a thing of the past.
“The BioLite HomeStove provides a unique solution—we’ve created the world’s first improved
cookstove to achieve 95% reductions in pollution without reliance on external electricity,” Cedar
said. Using BioLite’s patent‐pending technology, the stove converts waste heat to electricity that
powers a fan, creating an ultra‐efficient fire. Excess electricity can be used to charge mobile
phones, LED lights, and other electronics, providing added incentive to purchase and use the
product.
Matt Christensen, CEO of Rose Park Advisors and portfolio manager of the Disruptive Innovation
Fund, said, “Not only has BioLite developed transformative technology, the use of electricity to
incentivize adoption makes BioLite a deeply disruptive concept. In places like India, the world’s
fastest growing market for mobile phones, there are very low levels of electrification. BioLite is
providing access to electricity for off‐grid consumers, while they perform the necessary daily task
of cooking.”
BioLite’s business model is as unique as its product offering, says John Levy, a 30‐year technology
and venture capital veteran, formerly of L Capital Partners, who serves as board chairman for the
company. “BioLite has developed a compact, portable version of the HomeStove for US and
European recreation markets. The CampStove, available for preorders now and launching for
camping season in 2012, will generate near‐term revenue as the company’s developing world
product goes through large‐scale pilot testing.
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.
To learn more about BioLite, visit
http://biolitestove.com.
About The Disruptive Innovation Fund
Rose Park Advisors LLC was founded in 2007 by Harvard Business School’s Clayton Christensen,
the NY Times bestselling author of The Innovator’s Dilemma, and architect of the framework of
disruptive innovation. Christensen’s co‐founders are Matthew Christensen, previously a
consultant with Innosight and the Boston Consulting Group, and Whitney Johnson, formerly a
double‐ranked Institutional Investor equity analyst at Merrill Lynch.
A key finding of founder Clayton Christensen’s research is that many of the companies that grow
from start‐ups to become industry giants are built around innovations that create new markets or
reshape existing ones. Just as established companies systematically underestimate how large
entrant competitors will become, tools of financial analysis systematically underestimate their
growth potential. Because these entrant companies tend to be misunderstood, the market
misjudges their impact, presenting an investment opportunity.
About Toniic
From solar chargers in Africa to health clinics in India, Toniic is contributing to a global economy
that supports people, planet and profit. Toniic is an international impact investor network
promoting a sustainable global economy through investment opportunity curation and critical
expertise.
Contact: Adele Peters, BioLite/347.529.5720/adele@biolitestove.com