Trailheads

The company, which shipped its first product in 2012, recently acquired Goal Zero, bringing together the two industry leaders in the portable power market.

The vision behind bringing together the brands will be showcased at the upcoming Switchback show June 16-18 in Nashville. There, the brands will show their combined range of products that will cover core energy needs across cooking, cooling, power generation and storage, charging, and lighting.

“The two brands complement one another in so many ways,” said Erica Rosen, VP of marketing for BioLite, “”For example, BioLite delivers fire-based cooking products while Goal Zero offers electric coolers for refrigeration, a great pairing. From a brand perspective, BioLite offers a more approachable entry into off-grid gear while Goal Zero tells a more rugged, outdoor story and we look forward to building trust among our all our users so that they can reach for either brand to configure their own cohesive energy ecosystem.”

Goal Zero and BioLite will continue to support both brands in the marketplace while combining the core sales, operations, marketing, and engineering teams. The combined business will continue to operate under the ownership of BioLite and the leadership of Founder and CEO, Jonathan Cedar. The organization will maintain offices in both New York and Salt Lake City. 

“Together, we embody the whole front of energy,” said Cedar. “In a fragmented landscape, we are committed to doubling down as a trusted destination for outdoor energy with names you recognize and depend on both in the outdoors and at home.”

Bringing the two brands under one ownership group creates more opportunity for impact-driven work across international markets, as well. BioLite is headquartered in both New York and Nairobi, where it sells into the African market where a large part of the population does not have access to traditional power sources. “We service two distinct markets,” Rosen said. “Those who are off the grid by choice (in the outdoor market) and those who are off the grid by circumstance because traditional power infrastructure does not yet exist where they live.”

Rosen says that The Goal Zero portfolio of high capacity power station products will now plug into BioLite’s existing distribution network in Africa which includes “last mile” agents and field support. With hundreds of millions of individuals lacking reliable access to electricity across sub-Saharan Africa, this has the potential to transform the way families access power to run daily life – an insight actually shared by the core origin story of Goal Zero.

Goal Zero got its start years ago when the founders traveled to Central Africa and saw the need for off grid power. Believing that access to energy should never limit human potential, Goal Zero went on to develop a robust portfolio of solar, power, and lighting, and pioneered the power station category we know today. Goal Zero’s solutions will now be even more accessible to families in sub-Saharan Africa thanks to BioLite’s established distribution channels.

“Access to reliable power isn’t just about keeping the lights on,” says Rosen, “it’s about running your business, keeping your phone charged and connected, ensuring your wallet is active through mobile payments, so many things we often take for granted.”

In fact, she says when Cedar first started the business and was seeking funding, investors were intrigued that the business opportunity was greater than “just helping campers.” Fast forward to today, and BioLite just announced it has reached over 14.6 million people with clean energy access in it latest 2024 Impact Report. With Goal Zero now in the mix, they expect that impact to grow even more in the year ahead.

“To go from competitors to colleagues is an incredible transformation that, ultimately, directly benefits our end users and retail partners,” says Cedar, “As we weave our two brand stories together over the coming year, we’re excited for our respective loyal customer bases to learn more about the products available and how this all furthers our vision of Energy For All.”