Why BioLite Is So Popular? Story Behind BioLite

Energy lies at the epicenter of our lives, making us effective, imaginative, and prosperous. BioLite, a startup company based in New York City believes that energy is everywhere and is zealous in designing and assembling personal-scale energy products. BioLite has completely reformed the way people cook, charge devices, or enlighten their surroundings. They are proposing a better way to cook with wood — a source of Biomass.

Now you call BioLite a cooking company, and you miss the message. This company’s true focus is to pave the way for enabling people to sustain their lives off the grid by manufacturing revolutionary appliances, whether it’s in Kenya or into the woods. Because some campers may prefer to unplug completely from connected life whereas residents from developing landscapes crave the kind of comfort — like gas stoves, and lights — that only a reliable source of electricity can provide. 

Beforehand, the founders of BioLite acknowledged the fact that modifying wood-burning technologies could have a huge influence beyond the campsite. Nearly, half the world’s population still cooks sitting in front of fumes for hours by burning wood, because they live in and cooking off-grid neighborhoods that don’t subsidize electric cooktops. So from the very beginning, it established the idea of developing not only a portable camp stove that could burn wood as efficiently as gas but also home stove units that were able to revolutionize daily routines for people living in distant parts of Africa.

Now, it also manufactures headlamps, lanterns, solar panels, and even pizza ovens that are capable of improving energy output by up to 30%. Sounds innovative! BioLite’s innovations, since the beginning, have had a notable environmental impact, and look forward to creating a healthier society by eradicating exposure to toxic smoke. Their intentions along with their innovations are the reason why they are so popular.

Story Behind The Foundation

Before the co-launching of one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns in history, Jonathan Cedar and Alex Drummond were two co-workers at Smart Design, an NYC-based company where they often talked about water filters and coolers that centered around sustainable design – a shared enthusiasm. Following that passion, Drummond’s frustrating observation over the fact became stronger because he found almost all efficient camping stoves required fossil fuels. Right away, he pondered over the fact that he could create a stove that could potentially use its thermal energy from burning wood to improve combustion.

Cedar, an engineer by trade, was quick to jump on finalizing the idea- that would eventually usher out to become BioLite. After countless nights and weekends, Jonathan and Cedar accomplished something revolutionary in 2006: the CampStove that could leverage thermoelectrics from burning wood to create smokeless fire and charge devices. This CampStove was prepared to mark the beginning of it and was introduced among the community of posh campers who appreciated the idea of not requiring to bring batteries outdoors.

BioLite’s Mission: What Made BioLite So Popular

Energy is everywhere and access to energy is a prerequisite to human development — is what, BioLite stands upon. BioLite started with approaching traditional energy problems to solve and culminate energy poverty as well as enlighten lives off the grid. And they believed that bringing such an idea to reality needed something to work on that scale to deliver value to its customers. Hence, BioLite focused on creating a unique business model — Parallel Innovation. This business model helped this startup company to bring sustainable energy across Africa and India using the support of their recreation market customers who were purchasing BioLite’s outdoor gear.

To be holistic, BioLite was able to introduce side-by-side innovation in both the markets of need and recreation, parallelly. BioLite with its innovations has generated 1,499,535,545 Wh of electricity and emitted 403,427 Tonnes of CO2 which has impacted the lives of 1,400,941 people. The mission to bring clean, affordable, and meaningful access to energy by keeping technologies ahead is by far one of the biggest reasons for BioLite being so popular in the industry. 

Who Are BioLite’s Consumers?

Jonathan Cedar, an avid camper, reported in an interview that traveling outdoors is part of his DNA, and manufacturing sustainable products outdoors is quite satisfying for him. He also quoted about his gratifying moment of walking into someone’s house in Kenya who complimented saying, “You’ve turned my village into a city”, and was highly satisfied using BioLite’s product.

Jonathon Cedar also added, “We’re helping off-grid families participate in modern progress, and that feels fantastic”. Above all, BioLite centers around two distinct consumer sectors: outdoor recreation users, aspiring fuel-independent cooking and charging, and families from developing-country who are residing in energy poverty.

BioLite’s Standout Products

Since the emergence of BioLite, they know how to do one thing extremely well: designing and manufacturing products that stand out. BioLite mainly concentrates more on three areas before developing its business model for a product: cook, charge, and light. Besides, they had to find a solution to numerous problems this world was facing due to open-fire cooking or even having access to reliable electricity. As of 2016, BioLite’s flagship products in the market were the two most prominent wood-burning stoves that both generated electricity out of the igniting fire.

Both the stoves were able to reduce toxic smoke emissions by 90%, and, most importantly, curtail fuel consumption by half. These two products are even now serving the best to their consumers; CampStove, which is specifically designed for outdoor geeks or campers, and Home Stove designed for families surviving their life in energy poverty.

That’s how BioLite grabbed the attention of people around the world by working towards developing a sustainable model for every product they bring to the market. Rest assured, BioLite has great fame in developing some cream-of-the-crop products in the outdoor community —and its glory stretches far. A few of their standout products include;

BioLite maintains its integrity by manufacturing environmental-friendly products that enlighten and advance the off-grid lifestyle as well as eradicate energy poverty to a great extent.

The Bottom Line

BioLite believes energy is everywhere; keeping us productive, safe, and comfortable. And they needed more than just technology to make proper use of energy around the world. So, BioLite used energy to enable connection, reduce energy poverty, transform lives off the grid, and expedite the gears for the recreation industry.

Above all, BioLite is able to radically transform access to energy by bringing some of the best gears for the outdoor enthusiast that money can buy. Besides, BioLite has become so popular due to its innovations that curtail the sabotage of open-fire cooking while reducing premature death and also enable access to electricity to light up lives off the grid.