Last Saturday, students in the International Business and Economics Club (IBEC) presented investors and venture capitalists with a plan to sell cheap, safe, stoves to poor people in India at the annual Engineers in Technical Opportunities of Service (ETHOS) Conference at Northwest University in Kirkland, Wash.
ETHOS held its conference this year with the theme of bringing cooking technology cheaply and effectively to the Global South, or developing nations.
The project began three months ago when a stove designer, the non-profit organization Aprovecho Research Center, contacted IBEC to build a business plan that would enable them to sell stoves in India for a sustainable and long-term profit. This project is one part of a much larger push by Aprovecho to improve the quality of indoor air in developing countries by distributing stoves that cut down on carbon monoxide and particle matter emissions.
IBEC co-founders Simone Cimiluca-Radzins and Andre Nakazawa said the IBEC India Group developed a business plan that would target Biryani Centers, where the Asian rice dish biryani is served. The plan would meet a “triple bottom line,” addressing issues of profit, health, and the environment. It would initially rely on a grant of $125,000 from an investor to begin the operation.
By presenting at the international convention at Northwest University, the group, said Cimiluca-Radzins, hoped to generate interest from investors such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Shell Foundation.
“We were really nervous, there was a lot at stake,” Nakazawa said. He then added, though, that the response was pretty positive. The group hopes to have an understanding of who will be investing in their project within a month.