Image courtesy of Greenway
Greenway’s innovation on the traditional cooking stove was to allow more air to reach the flame, while keeping excess heat from escaping. This helps the fire burn more efficiently, using 65% less fuel to generate heat than traditional stoves, and emitting 42% less carbon monoxide.
That efficiency is impactful for customers: 87% say their level of workload has decreased thanks to the stove and they report spending 29 minutes less cooking their main meal each day on average.
The unhealthy cooking conditions Mathur and Juneja have worked to improve are prevalent around the world. About 2.1 billion people cook with open fires or inefficient stoves, according to the World Health Organization. The pollution from these cooking methods can have devastating health effects, contributing to diseases like stroke, heart disease, pulmonary disease and lung cancer. In 2020, household air pollution caused 3.2 million deaths, with women and children facing a particularly high burden from unhealthy cooking conditions. Improving cooking efficiency can lead to dramatic benefits for indoor air pollution and health, all while saving people time and helping address climate change.
For Prabhulal Meena, a Greenway customer, the health effects of his stove are notable for his family of six: “[The stove] consumes less wood, gives smoke-free cooking, and there is no danger of falling sick due to smoke carbon,” he said. His experience echoes the 54% of customers who report noticing health improvements after switching to Greenway’s stove.
Greenway has now sold more than 3 million stoves, impacting an estimated 15 million people and mitigating at least 10 million tons of greenhouse gasses since 2016. But getting these fuel-efficient stoves into customers’ homes isn’t an easy process. “The challenge, we quickly realized, was distribution rather than design,” said Mathur.
The company had to work to make the stoves as affordable as possible for their rural customer-base, and found partners who could help finance customers’ purchases. With the help of banks and microfinance institutions, Greenway was able to sell the stove through monthly installments. “After that, the stove really flew off our vehicles,” said Mathur.
Image courtesy of Greenway
This innovation is what initially attracted Acumen, an impact investing organization that aims to address poverty by investing in companies that improve people’s lives. Acumen deploys patient capital, making long-term investments in entrepreneurs and companies tackling big challenges. Acumen made an investment in Greenway because of its strategy of partnering with microfinance institutions and its positive impact on people, and “we really liked the profile of the founders,” said Paraag Sabhlok, associate portfolio director at Acumen.
That investment helped Greenway and provided a new network of partners and opportunities, said Mathur.
Patient capital is what you need for companies like us. We are not operating for a consumer segment that will pay more later…and I think Acumen has been helpful in understanding that.
Greenway’s growth over the past 15 years hasn’t been without its challenges. Demonetization in India in 2016 left many customers with fewer resources to invest in a new stove. For several months the company struggled with cash flow and had to prioritize payments to its frontline employees. This meant some executives didn’t take home a salary for four to six months while the company got back on solid financial footing.
Looking to the future, Mathur said he’d like to add new innovations to Greenway’s product line, including products for water filtration and cleaner electric stoves.
From Acumen’s perspective this is a successful impact investment with big outcomes: “They have sold more than a million stoves, they have impacted many lives and they are a self-sustaining company,” said Sabhlok. “It’s an example where you can help a company to reach its purpose.”
At a glance:
Investor: Acumen
Background: Acumen is a nonprofit that invests in entrepreneurs to help them build a more inclusive world. Across its philanthropic portfolio and returnable funds, it has invested in 215 portfolio companies, deployed $260 million USD and impacted 648 million lives since 2001.
Investment thesis: Acumen deploys philanthropic capital to high-innovation, high-impact enterprises that shape markets to break the cycle of poverty. Learn more about its investment principles.
Deal structure with Greenway: Early-stage equity investment