FlameStower, a device that can charge your cell phone by using fire, has beaten their goal on Kickstarter by raising over $38,000 on a $15,000 goal. The campaign continues to raise funds and is scheduled to close on October 24th. With the successful funding round on Kickstarter organizers have decided to initiate a new partnership in Kenya.
Creating a new reward, “Stowers for Alex”, where the backers receive a FlameStower Fire Charger, 100 percent of profits will be going to buy manufacturing equipment for the Victorian Innovation Center in Kenya. The manufacturing equipment will enable production of products utilizing the sisal plant, a drought resistant crop.
FlameStower’s mission is to deliver the lowest-cost small generator in the world, providing in-home, efficient electricity from cooking fires to power mobile phones and small home lights in the developing world. The company plans to assemble its charger products locally in the developing world markets where they will be sold, and through that effort has built a partnership with an amazing innovator from Kisumu, Kenya, Mr. Alex Odundo.
Alex, a TED fellow and founder of the VIC, spent the last 15 years independently developing a set of agricultural machines designed to efficiently harvest and process the sisal plant into usable twine and rope. Orders for his sisal harvesting machines are coming in from Kenya, Tanzania, and as far away as South Africa. Yet with no manufacturing equipment to make the machines and no access to business loans or investment to fund his growth, he works overnight at a regional college to produce orders one at a time.
FlameStower wants to change that and is working with Alex to get him the equipment he needs right now. At the same time FlameStower will build the ability to launch local manufacturing in the communities where its devices are most needed.
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