Mumbai-based biomass cooking stove maker Greenway Appliances has secured $2.5 million as part of a Series A round of funding from former Genpact CEO Pramod Bhasin and others, according to a report by The Economic Times.
Other investors that participated in the round were Acumen, a global non-profit investment organisation focused on poverty issues, and Vikram Gandhi, founder of Asha Impact platform floated to address India's developmental challenges.
"We form ideal replacements for traditional mud stoves by allowing users to continue using biomass fuels that they have easy access to, but delivering 65 per cent fuel savings and 70 per cent smoke reduction with no noxious fumes,” said Neha Juneja, CEO of Greenway Appliances.
Bhasin is counted among the most active angel investors, with over eight investments already under his belt. These include NDTV’s Gadget 360, Indifi Technologies and Lexplosion Solutions.
Bhasin—who stepped down as CEO of Genpact in mid-2011—most recently invested, along with other angel investors, in SmartCooky, media group NDTV’s yet-to-be-launched e-commerce marketplace for health foods and personal care products.
Founded in 2011, Greenway Appliances offers two types of biomass cooking stoves—Greenway Smart Stove and Greenway Jumbo Stove. The smart stove has a loading capacity of 25 kg and is priced at Rs 1,499 while the jumbo stove has loading capacity of 40 kg and is priced at Rs 2,499.
The company claims that its products provide a fuel efficient, smoke-reducing and affordable alternative. The firm’s manufacturing, design, and distribution operations are based in India.
An email sent to Greenway Appliances seeking further information on the aforesaid development did not elicit any response by the time of filing this article.
Reliance PE-backed kitchen appliance maker Butterfly Gandhimathi Appliances Ltd and Sequoia Capital-backed cookware and kitchen appliances company Stovekraft are the other funded stove-makers.