Posted on :Wednesday , 8th May 2024

Kenya-based BURN Manufacturing, a well-known manufacturer of clean cookstoves, has received more than $12 million in capital, primarily to expand the reach of its clean cooking products across the African continent.

This grant is the outcome of Key Carbon Ltd.'s successful follow-on carbon project investment programme. Key Carbon Ltd., formerly known as CNR "Carbon Neutral Royalty," is now spearheading the effort to fund BURN's growth.

Significant support for the investment round was also provided by the international private equity company Cartesian. Known for funding cutting-edge initiatives, particularly those pertaining to decarburization and climate mitigation, Cartesian upholds its reputation by aiding BURN in its goal of encouraging clean cooking and lowering carbon emissions. With this fresh round of funding, BURN is now in a position to reach a wider audience with its clean cooking solutions, which will help to improve air quality and lessen deforestation in Africa.

According to BURN Manufacturing, the purpose of this most recent $12 million investment is to expand the company's electric cookstove distribution into nations including Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Zambia. In the next two years, the company also plans to encourage the use of its biomass burners in Tanzania, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Nigeria.

These programmes are especially important given the difficulties that traditional cooking practices in Sub-Saharan Africa present. Approximately 950 million people depend on outdated methods, making up a sizable share of the population at the moment. These frequently entail the use of conventional fuels, such as firewood or charcoal, which have a number of detrimental effects.

The hazards of burn injuries as well as exposure to toxic smoke and related respiratory conditions have serious health ramifications. Furthermore, the wasteful use of fuel results in increased carbon emissions and deforestation, which has a negative impact on the environment. Families are financially burdened by the ongoing need to obtain these traditional fuels. Furthermore, there are major ramifications for gender equality because women and girls are frequently disproportionately responsible for obtaining cooking fuel, which puts them at risk for injury and limits their access to jobs and education.

Because of this, BURN's initiatives to make their cleaner and more sustainable cooking solutions more widely available are essential to resolving the problems that communities in Sub-Saharan Africa are currently facing.

The CEO and founder of BURN Manufacturing, Peter Scott, emphasized the noteworthy progress the business has made since 2014. “Over 24 million people's lives have already been altered by their industry-leading electric and biomass stoves,” he said. The new funding will significantly increase this accomplishment and expand its impact to include an additional 1.5 million individuals.

One of the most important things BURN has done to help make clean cooking more affordable, especially for low-income people, is to leverage carbon financing. BURN has increased the affordability of its cookstoves, making them more affordable for a wider range of people. Thus, it appears that an estimated 1.5 million individuals would directly benefit from this recent investment in their excellent electric and biomass cookstoves, greatly lowering carbon emissions by an estimated 12 million tonnes.

Co-founder and CEO of Key Carbon Luke Leslie claims that the business has been effective in getting enterprises and institutional investors to take notice of the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM). This success is largely attributable to the development of appealing investable items.

Leslie notes that the VCM has the ability to greatly help some of the most vulnerable communities in the world while also accelerating efforts to conserve the environment and biodiversity. But to do this, more multinational asset managers and businesses need to consider carbon credits as a class of investable assets.

Key Carbon's established pipeline for investors is further bolstered by its latest fundraising deal with private equity company Cartesian. Investors now have a preferential path to funding significant decarburization projects and obtaining premium carbon credits. According to Leslie, this is just more proof of Key Carbon's dependability and potency in the field of climate finance.