Changing how Zambia cooks – and building a business around it

Interview with Marion Peterson
CO-FOUNDER, SUPAMOTO

Lives in: Lusaka, Zambia

Charcoal remains the dominant cooking fuel for many Zambian households, despite its environmental and health costs. Emerging Cooking Solutions – operating under the brand SupaMoto – offers a cleaner and cheaper alternative. The company was founded by American-born Marion Peterson and her husband, Mattias Ohlson.

How we made it in Africa editor-in-chief Jaco Maritz spoke to Peterson about building the venture, refining its business model, and her experience of living and working in Zambia.

Topics discussed during the interview include:

• Inside the business model
• Moving from Europe to build a business in Zambia
• Early challenges of starting up
• Driving sales through community agents
• Untapped business opportunities in Zambia

Watch the full interview below: (only available on howwemadeitinafrica.com)

Interview summary:

More than half of Zambian households rely on charcoal and firewood for cooking. This widespread dependence has fuelled one of the highest deforestation rates on the continent, with the country estimated to be losing as much as 250,000 hectares of forest annually. Charcoal use, particularly indoors, also poses serious health risks due to the pollutants it emits.

“It’s such a huge environmental disaster,” says Marion Peterson, the American-born co-founder of SupaMoto, a cooking products company targeting this problem. “The trees are being cut. The health impact is huge. And also the time for women – women spend so much time on cooking with charcoal. Imagine making a barbecue every single time you want a cup of tea.”

Founded in 2012, SupaMoto offers a clean cooking solution built around two core products: a fuel-efficient stove and biomass pellets made from waste wood.

The stove, developed by the company and manufactured in South Africa, burns the pellets as fuel. A small built-in fan improves combustion and reduces emissions, allowing it to burn cleanly with virtually no smoke. It comes with a rechargeable battery and a solar panel for off-grid charging. Users can also charge their mobile phones directly from the stove.

The pellets are produced locally from wood offcuts and sawdust – by-products of timber processing that would otherwise go to waste.

A customer using SupaMoto’s cook stove.

The business model

Peterson and her team spent several years refining SupaMoto’s business model. Early efforts to sell the stove outright – including on a pay-as-you-go basis – failed to gain traction.

Instead, the company now operates what Peterson describes as a ‘utility model’. Customers sign a contract committing to purchase a minimum of 20kg of pellets a month – at roughly half the cost of charcoal – using mobile money. SupaMoto lends them the stove at no charge for as long as they continue buying the pellets. If a customer stops making purchases, the company reclaims the stove.

The company works with what it calls ‘lead generators’ – individuals based within communities who identify and recruit new customers. SupaMoto supplies them with stock of pellets in advance. When a customer makes a mobile money payment, the lead generator delivers the order. In return, they earn a commission on the sales they facilitate.

SupaMoto also plans to generate revenue through the sale of carbon credits tied to its clean cooking solution.

The pellets are made from wood offcuts and sawdust

€4m injection to scale operations

The business was initially funded with money from the founders, their families, and a small family office. Over time, it also received grant funding from various organisations.

Earlier this year, SupaMoto secured a €4 million investment from InfraCo Africa and EDFI Management Company, a major turning point for the company.

“We’ve had a long period of surviving on very little funds while we were developing all these ideas,” says Peterson. With the new investment and a business model that is now working, the company – currently employing 130 people – is ramping up its sales efforts.

SupaMoto aims to have one million stoves in use across Zambia by 2030. It has also entered Malawi, where its operations remain small but, according to Peterson, show promising potential.

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