50,000th Nairobi household switches to KOKO Fuel

KOKO Networks (“KOKO”) today sold the 50,000th KOKO Cooker and Smart Canister kit since the Q4 2019 launch of its KOKO Fuel business in Nairobi.

Urban cooking across Africa remains dominated by dirty cooking fuels such as charcoal, which is produced through deforestation and causes millions of early deaths through indoor air pollution, as well as being a major cause of carbon emissions. KOKO’s market-leading technology platform enables bioethanol cooking fuel to scale rapidly by decosting the last-mile and undercutting dirty fuels.

The KOKO Cooker kit offers customers a safe, convenient and modern 2-burner cooking solution, at less than half the price of competing modern solutions. Clean bioethanol cooking fuel is accessible within a short walk of all Nairobi homes through a Network of more than 600 KOKO Agents equipped with “KOKO Point” Fuel ATMs inside their shops across the Greater Nairobi metropolitan region. Customers buy fuel digitally, with top-up options starting at USD 0.30, and pay the same unit price irrespective of top-up size.

Bioethanol cooking fuel, when distributed via KOKO’s technology platform in partnership with the downstream fuels industry, has been independently assessed by Dalberg Global Development Advisors to involve 1/18th the capital expenditure of LPG. This reality enables supply to grow rapidly at relatively low cost, and creates a credible and scalable option for solving the dirty cooking fuel crisis in urban Africa.

KOKO employs more than 500 staff between Kenya and India, with a broad capability that spans R&D; Software Product & Engineering; Hardware Manufacturing; Cooker Distribution; Network Operations; Agent Management; Sales; and Customer Care.

KOKO’s CEO, Greg Murray, commented: “KOKO’s mission is to imagine and deliver technology that transforms life in the world’s fastest-growing cities, and KOKO Fuel is now doing exactly that for over 50,000 households in Nairobi.”

“COVID-19 has reinforced the importance of healthy lungs and clean air, and the bulk of our growth has occurred during the pandemic. Our team has done an exceptional job of adjusting to the new reality, enabling us to safely operate whilst scaling delivery of this essential solution.”

“It is still early days, but we are already over 10% adoption in some Nairobi neighbourhoods, and word is spreading very quickly. It is really heartening to see such a strong response from Nairobi customers, who understand that clean modern cooking is now available to all, and not restricted to the wealthy.”

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