Juveline Ngum, Cameroon

Bleaglee co-founder Juveline Ngwa worked in metals and materials engineering before focusing on sustainability, studying climate change, recycling and renewables while starting the company.

Metal scrap accounts for 40% of Cameroon’s annual waste, and yet metal recycling has shown significant financial and environmental benefits, reducing industrial energy use by 75% and air pollution by 86%.

Juveline and her team felt strongly that their solution should be inclusive, and designed it to be accessible to users with disabilities. For this reason, the Bleaglee cookstove is entirely mobile, can be aided by sensors and timers powered by artificial intelligence. These can automatically switch the stove off when food is ready, and monitor air quality. Death rates from indoor air pollution are highest in low-income countries, and as high as 11% in some African regions. Globally, deaths attributed to air pollution are estimated to be between 1.6 and 4 million a year.

Bleaglee has a particular focus on empowering women, and in addition to selling the system, the team also trains women to source scrap metal and make the stoves themselves. Customers have so far included households, cafeterias, schools and small restaurants. Bleaglee stoves are 80% cheaper than using firewood and cook food five times faster than traditional ovens used in Cameroon.

Juveline and her team aim to build Bleaglee into a household name, serving two million customers within the next decade, and plan to build an app that helps track the supply of scrap metal from informal recyclers. They’ve have also begun using a digital platform and drones to detect waste materials that can be used in production.