A startup that’s made cooking a revenue-generating affair

Ben Jeffrey

Social entrepreneur Ben Jeffrey is leading the operation of ATEC, a green-tech startup working to solve clean cooking and climate change. During an interview with The Daily Star recently, he spoke about ATEC, its global and local operations, revenue-sharing model and competition, among other issues.

DS: What does ATEC do?

Ben Jeffrey: ATEC exists to de-carbonise cooking. Traditional cooking is done using a large quantity of foods which emits a lot of carbon dioxide as well as other greenhouse gases. The quantity is around one gigaton, which is far more than the emissions caused by the entire airline industry in the world. The whole goal is to take away people from the traditional means of cooking and get them on board with modern cooking systems.

What we bring is quite unique in this situation because we have a very technology-based approach to trying to solve this problem. We have our very own electric cooking device system, which is a high-efficiency induction stove.

It also has a SIM card in it, so it is essentially an IoT device. These patented devices can be used for payments. But more importantly, this data can be used to calculate carbon credits, which can be later sold internationally.

We have major partners in the energy and transport sectors that are looking towards offsetting their carbon emissions. Hence, they are very interested in buying carbon credits, particularly from households in developing or least-developed countries. We just don't share the stove with them. We also share the revenues obtained from these carbon credit sales.

DS: What's the scale of operation of ATEC globally?

Ben Jeffrey: We originally started in Cambodia in 2016. We initially began with a biogas product. We are still operating that and it is also doing quite good in Bangladesh.

In 2019, we raised funds to expand our operation to Bangladesh because the market dynamics, the type of economy and the type of geography are very similar to Cambodia. But the best part is it has a population that is 10 times more than Cambodia. So, we saw it as a very high potential growth market. We registered in Bangladesh in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic.

DS: What's the customer base in Bangladesh? How big is the operation? What are the products?

Ben Jeffrey: Currently, we have two products in the market: the IoT-based e-cook stove and the other one is the biogas-based product. These products are available in the countries we operate in. 

In Bangladesh, the widely adopted product is the e-cook stove. Right now, we have around 5,000 active customers in Bangladesh. Around 80 per cent of them are e-cook stove users. We acquire most of our customers through Facebook ads and other digital means.

We also have an app where customers can check their electricity consumption. This has been well-received by customers. Our payments system is integrated into it, so users can make the payments as well.

DS: How does the revenue-sharing model work?

Ben Jeffrey: The e-cook can be purchased on a payment plan (EMI plan). It requires electricity to cook, similar to any other conventional e-cooker. It is very cheap compared to LPG.

Right now, we are running a pilot for the revenue-sharing model with a few customers. If this proves to be successful, we plan to take it to other customers. Since this is very dependent on the price of the carbon market, we are hopeful that it will be very effective as these are high-impact and high technology-driven carbon credit that is very lucrative.

We expect to fetch a premium price on these. So, hopefully, the customers can offset their cost of electricity. The biodigester is also catching up. The system here is significantly larger. So, this project is taking a bit of time.

DS: Who are your competitors?

Ben Jeffrey: We have been operating as a startup. And as a startup, we do have competition. Our usual competitors are the conventional electric stove brands such as Walton, Miyako, Prestige and Vision. They are obviously providing a good and standard product. But we are bringing a carbon credit facility that no brand has offered yet.

Our very product is actually changing cooking from being a consumption-based activity to a revenue-generating activity. The very essence of our business is that we are actually going to new and interesting markets with fitting products where no other brand has gone before. So as of now, we do not see any direct competitor but maybe in the future, there might be some other players joining this business.

DS: What has been the most challenging part of your startup journey?

Ben Jeffrey: The government in Bangladesh has done an excellent job in terms of rolling out the electricity grid throughout the country. However, grid reliability is still a big issue, particularly in rural areas. As electrical cooking requires electricity, that is indeed a big challenge in the market.