BURN, the manufacturer and distributor of clean cooking appliances and carbon project developer globally, has secured a significant investment of $15 million from the European Investment Bank (EIB).
The announcement was made during the World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings in Washington, D.C.
The funding will enhance BURN’s initiatives to manufacture and distribute its IoT-enabled ECOA electric cooking appliances to over one million households across East Africa.
The ECOA Induction Cooker (IDC) features innovative “Pay As You Cook” (PAYC) technology, allowing users to make small payments via mobile money systems integrated with the ECOA Mobile App.
This model enables low-income families to gradually own their cooking appliances through manageable daily or weekly installments, achieving full ownership within a year. The ECOA IDC comes with a high-quality three-piece stainless steel induction cookware set, all manufactured in Kenya.
Each ECOA IDC generates high-integrity carbon credits through integrated cellular-enabled IoT technology, which facilitates real-time monitoring of energy consumption.
The cooker can reduce approximately 2.5 tonnes of carbon emissions annually, aligning with the EIB’s climate action and economic development goals.
EIB Group President Nadia Calviño highlighted the investment’s significance, stating that the financing aims to drive development through innovation, strengthening communities and protecting the health of women and their families.
BURN’s initiative to expand affordable clean cooking to over a million households in Africa exemplifies the transformative projects we aim to support under our Global Gateway Initiative.
BURN’s Founder and CEO, Peter Scott, emphasized the impact of this investment, noting, “We have introduced our unique PAYC electric cooking solution to thousands of households in Kenya and Tanzania, replacing traditional charcoal stoves. This support from EIB will enable us to transition over a million low-income households to cleaner electricity, with power grids that are 80-95% renewable.”
BURN’s clean cooking technologies have been independently validated through a peer-reviewed Randomized Control Trial by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Chicago.
Findings showed 39% fuel savings compared to traditional stoves, annual savings of $119 for families, and a reduction of around 3.5 tons of CO2 emissions per cookstove annually. Importantly, 98% of these stoves remain in use, attesting to their efficacy and sustainability.
To date, BURN has distributed over 5 million clean cookstoves across Africa, positively impacting the lives of over 25 million people and preventing 26 million tons of CO2 emissions.