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Impact:
Clean Our Air

835,000

Lives improved through the use of Mukuru's Clean Stoves

$24M

Raised by Roam during its Series A Funding round

23,000

Tonnes of CO2e emissions avoided by AMPD’S Enertainers

Featured Finalist Impact

Charlot Magayi, Mukuru Clean Stoves, stands infront of the stoves

Mukuru Clean Stoves

Read their story
Their Mission

Across Africa, 700 million people use solid fuel to cook on open fires and cookstoves that emit toxic chemicals and lack safety standards. Rather than burning dangerous solid fuels, Mukuru use processed biomass made from charcoal, wood and sugarcane. This burns cleaner, creating 90 per cent less pollution than an open fire and 70 per cent less than a traditional cookstove. They are cheaper too, costing just $10 and halving ongoing fuel costs.

Use of Prize Money

Since winning The Earthshot Prize, Mukuru Clean Stoves has grown much faster than the team anticipated: the company has already expanded its work into new markets. The Earthshot Prize money has helped it to triple the size of its team, partner with more local women, and launch a new malaria research project.

Key Milestones

Before winning The Earthshot Prize, Mukuru Clean Stoves operated in three different markets. The company is now in six markets, including an expansion into Ghana and Nigeria. In the last year, the company sold almost 170,000 new clean cookstoves, more than double the amount sold in the previous year.

Environmental and Social Impact

Since becoming a Finalist in 2022, Mukuru cookstoves have avoided 177,000 tonnes of new CO2 emissions and improved the livelihoods of over 835,000 additional people by improving their air quality and saving them money.

Connections Made

Thanks to an introduction by The Earthshot Prize, Mukuru Clean Stoves forged a new partnership with the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, worth just under $1m (£0.8m). The money will be used on an R&D project to develop malaria-fighting briquettes for its stoves: an innovative solution with the potential to save even more lives.

Finalist Highlights

Funding

At the very end of 2023, the team at Roam closed its series A funding round raising $24m, with The Earthshot Prize helping connect the team to one of its investors. This funding will enable Roam to expand its production of locally designed and manufactured electric motorcycles and buses, fuelling its mission to revolutionise African transportation with innovative products specifically designed for consumers across the continent.

Support and Connections

Electric transport company Roam has received $150,000 (£124,000) in pro bono support and software development credits from Global Alliance member Microsoft. A strategic partnership with Hitachi aims to boost the number of electric motorcycles and buses in Nairobi and beyond.

Key Milestones

Working with construction company Laing O’Rourke, Ampd Energy has deployed three of its zero emission Enertainers in London in its first UK project. This will avoid an estimated 192 tonnes of carbon every year and save 70 per cent of energy costs.

In late 2022, Roam launched a zero emissions electric bus, the Roam Rapid, a first-of-its-kind public transport system for Nairobi and beyond. More recently it unveiled a second smaller electric bus model, Roam Move, designed for Kenyan commuters.

Environmental and Social

Since becoming Finalists, the first two cohorts in the Clean our Air category have collectively reduced or avoided over 200,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions, avoided over 100,000 kilograms of air pollutants and improved the livelihoods of over 840,000 people. This includes Roam, who had saved more than five times the amount of CO2 emissions in 2023 than it did in 2022, and AMPD Energy, who has avoided almost 23,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions, double the amount in the previous year.

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The Earthshot Prize