BioLite LLC

BioLite develops and manufactures advanced energy products that make cooking with wood as clean safe and easy as modern fuels and provide electricity to charge cell phones and LED lights off-grid.

Founded 2009
16-50 employees
  • Electric Energy & Natural Gas
  • Headquarters address
    New York, NY, United States

    About Us

    BioLite is a dynamic, rapidly growing, and profitable social enterprise that develops, manufactures and markets consumer energy products for off-grid communities around the world. Over the last three years, our team has tripled, and sales have doubled each year. Our business serves two distinct markets: 1) developing world families living in energy poverty, and 2) outdoor enthusiasts seeking fuel-independent cooking and power. We address these markets simultaneously through parallel innovation: by incubating core technologies that can serve users in both markets, we are able to re-invest near-term revenue to solve long-term, high-impact problems.

    Developing World: Half the planet still cooks on indoor open wood fires and the toxic smoke they emit kills nearly 4 million people every year, twice as many as malaria. BioLite has developed an advanced, affordable, clean- burning stove that combines unprecedented emissions reductions with economically valuable electricity generation. The HomeStove™ is capable of reducing indoor smoke by more than 90% while cutting fuel use in half. By providing our largely off-grid customers with the ability to charge cell phones and LED lights, our stoves create economic incentive for purchase and continued use, ensuring sustainable delivery of our health and environmental benefits.

    Funded by the company’s profits and the generous support of the US Department of Energy and USAID, BioLite is currently conducting large-scale HomeStove™ pilot programs in India, Uganda, and Ghana. We aim to fully commercialize the product in the near future.

    Outdoor and Emergency: BioLite has quickly emerged as a leading innovator in the personal energy space. Whether camping in the backcountry or toughing it out during a power outage, our core technologies allow people to cook meals, boil water, and charge their electronic devices using nothing but the sticks and twigs collected around them. Our CampStove, along with its accessories, offers a green alternative to petroleum cooking, combining the speed and reliability of an advanced stove with the appeal of a traditional campfire. The product’s power generator keeps users connected when it matters most.

    Our product roadmap has exciting new innovations, which will continue our expansion in the Outdoor and Emergency markets, allowing people to create, store and share energy in any situation they find themselves. Our products are now in over 70 countries worldwide and are found in all major outdoor retailers, including REI, EMS, and Bass Pro Shops.

    BioLite is the winner of numerous awards including the St. Andrews Prize for the Environment, Core77 Design Award, Fast Company Innovation by Design Award, and Popular Science's Best of What's New.

    Tech stack

    MATLAB, R, C, Python