NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 24 – BURN, a manufacturer of clean cooking stoves, has secured Sh1.93 billion ($15 million) in funding from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to expand its production of electric cooking appliances.
The announcement was made during the World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings in Washington, D.C.
The funds will be used to manufacture and distribute BURN’s IoT-enabled ECOA electric cooking appliances to over 1 million households across East Africa.
The ECOA Induction Cooker (IDC) is integrated with Pay As You Cook (PAYC) technology, which allows users to purchase the devices via small daily or weekly installments using mobile money, eventually owning the appliance within a year.
The cooker also comes with a three-piece stainless steel induction cookware set, fully manufactured in Kenya.
“This investment in affordable, clean cooking solutions for over a million households in Africa aligns with the European Union’s Global Gateway Initiative,” said EIB Group President Nadia Calviño.
BURN’s cookstoves have been shown to provide significant benefits, including 39 percent fuel savings and a reduction of $119 in household expenses per year, while cutting CO2 emissions by 3.5 tons annually, according to a study by the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Chicago.
To date, BURN has distributed over 5 million clean cookstoves across Africa, positively impacting 25 million lives and preventing 26 million tons of CO2 emissions.
Peter Scott, Founder and CEO of BURN, stated, “This investment by EIB will help transition over a million low-income households to electric cooking, using grids powered 80-95% by renewable energy.”
