Kenyan biomass briquette manufacturer Kings Biofuels Ltd (KBL) has received Kshs. 5 million (≈ US$50 000) in financing from the Kenya Climate Innovation Center (KCIC), under its Early Stage Financing Mechanism (ESFM). The company becomes the second to receive the funds under the facility.
Located in central Kenya about 60 km north of the capital Nairobi, Kings Biofuels began in 2014 to manufacture briquettes from biowaste products such as sawdust, coffee husks and rice husks. The residues are sourced locally as farmers and industries have not put in place disposal mechanisms other than burning them in the open thereby polluting the air.
According to KCIC, the early stage financing facility is designed to empower clean technology enterprises to develop and grow sustainable, revenue-based business models that are aligned to addressing climate mitigation and adaption. This facility was made possible courtesy of a partnership between Autodesk Foundation and Kenya Climate Innovation Center.
Autodesk Foundation seeded the facility through which KCIC is now investing in its enterprises to enable them to scale their climate innovations. Climate change poses a real threat to Kenya’s development prospects and livelihoods and can undermine investments made to meet Kenya’s development agenda. The drivers of Kenya’s economy are primarily natural resource-based with sectors such as agriculture, trade and industry, tourism and services such as water, energy and transport being climate sensitive.
Speaking during the signing, Edward Mungai CEO of Kenya Climate Innovation Center noted that this was the second time that KCIC is signing off commercial funding. The funding will be used to meet the current demand for briquettes in the market.
The loan to Kings Biofuels will go a long way in managing the drying component of the value chain which will then translate to more revenues and help the country in averting deforestation and providing an alternative clean energy solution for Kenyans. Early stage financing facility is a game changer that will support early-stage enterprises in their quest of identifying innovative, market-based climate solutions, and help them move toward greater financial growth, said Mungai.
Mungai added that it is encouraging to see businesses showing the capacity to grow to the next level. He lauded the Autodesk Foundation for supporting the facility to extend working capital and CAPEX financing to entrepreneurs.
We are grateful to KCIC for proving the loan facility which will go a long way to assisting in meeting the demand for briquettes, said Festus Ngugi, Founder and Director of Kings Biofuels.
KCIC has incubated over 179 clean technology businesses out of which 80 enterprises reached commercialization and facilitated over US$15 million private sector worth of funding for climate change related enterprises. KCIC is funded by the United Kingdom’s UKaid and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
