Origin and Mission
In 2015, David and Rocio established Bidhaa Sasa with a vision to transform the distribution landscape for essential goods in rural East Africa.
Despite a surge in innovative solutions designed to elevate living standards, their reach was predominantly urban, bypassing the rural communities most in need.
Bidhaa Sasa was conceived to bridge this gap by leveraging the unique social dynamics of rural communities, particularly the networks of women who are often central to family and community life.
Central to this approach is the empowerment of women, who not only benefit from but also drive the distribution network, ensuring these transformative technologies penetrate deeply into the communities that need them most.
Through these social networks, we provide goods on payment plans without requiring collateral or traditional credit histories, utilising a group liability model to radically improving their affordability.
Achievements and Impact
Our unique model has proven particularly effective in reaching rural women, who make up 75% of our clientele. By delivering products directly to their homes and offering flexible payment plans via mobile money, we overcome significant barriers to access and affordability. This approach not only empowers women by integrating them into the economic framework but also by ensuring they are central to the distribution network. Thousands of clients work every day with us to recruit further clients creating a virtous cycle that enhances the quality of life of rural communities.
Since its inception, Bidhaa Sasa has been pivotal in shifting Kenya and Uganda towards cleaner cooking methods, distributing over 50,000 efficient charcoal stoves, 50,000 LPG gas cookers, and 5,000 electric pressure cookers.
Our comprehensive approach also includes climate adaptation solutions like water tanks and agricultural tools, collectively benefiting over a million individuals. Currently, we are enhancing our impact by developing high-quality carbon emission reduction projects that capitalise on both mitigation and adaptation benefits.
Our Model
Network Marketing
Inspired by Tupperware: Satisfied clients create awareness and recruit further clients
Digital operations
Automated loan management: All products are paid over time with mobile money
High-integrity carbon finance
Metered products and digital verification: Usage data provide trusted carbon credits with tangible impact on rural families.
Electric Cooking
As electrification rates rise and the regional grids are increasingly powered by renewable energy, new e-cooking technologies, particularly electric pressure cookers (EPCs), are proving transformative. By leveraging electricity — now the most cost-effective, safest, and cleanest cooking option — households are rapidly transitioning away from traditional biomass fuels. With 80% of traditional dishes compatible with EPCs, the transition from charcoal and wood is both feasible and beneficial. This shift is poised to have significant climate impacts, reducing dependence on deforestation-prone fuels and improving indoor air quality.
Our commitment to delivering high-quality emission reductions and additional co-benefits is evident in our operational approach. We employ metered devices and digital monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems to ensure the transparency of our emission reduction credits and moving away from unreliable estimated measurements. Our extensive experience in monitoring and evaluation allows us to accurately assess the social and environmental impacts on our clients, ensuring that these co-benefits are substantial and measurable.
Impact on Sustainable Development
Clean cooking is necessary to leading healthy and productive lives, and it also helps consumers save time and money.
Clean cooking is essential to addressing energy poverty and ensuring sustainable energy security for billions of people.
Clean cooking reduces fuel needs, thus reducing the burden on families to collect, buy, or trade other resources, such as food, for fuel.
Energy access enables enhanced productivity and inclusive economic growth. A global clean cooking sector can boost job creation.
Clean cooking improves health by lowering the burden of disease from exposure to household air pollution.
Clean cooking addresses household and ambient air pollution, resource efficiency, and climate vulnerability.
Clean cooking can help children, especially girls, stay in school by reducing time spent on cooking and collecting fuel for the household.
Clean cooking reduces harmful, climate-damaging emissions from burning polluting fuels in inefficient stoves.
Clean cooking can reduce the burden of unpaid care work, which remains a major cause of gender inequality
Clean cooking reduces the amount of wood required for cooking, thereby reducing environmental degradation and pressure on forest resources
Meet the Team
Success doesn’t come from anywhere. A growing team of 80+, with people from many countries, cultures and backgrounds makes the magic happen.
Most of us live and work in the rural heartlands of Kenya and Uganda, where we strive to recruit and nurture local talent.
Rocio Perez Ochoa
Co-founder & CEO
Rocio manages our investor relationships and financial matters, and analyses everything from client data, repayment patterns, sales processes to our P&L or burn rate with nuclear precision. (She’s got a PhD in particle physics!).
Part-time she’s running her other start-up that includes the near impossible task of aligning interests of husband, kids and dog.
David Disch
Co-founder & COO
David oversees the day-to-day operational activities, supplier relationships as well as expansion strategy in-country, leading a lean and standardisation-oriented team with a clear view on scale.
When he is not working in the field you will find him on top of the nearest mountain, brought up in the Alps he cannot resist them.
Gladys Wilson
People & Culture
In the People and Culture department, she focuses on creating and maintaining scalable people processes and promoting data clarity, fostering a culture of open communication to align people and business goals. Her dedication is aimed to drive high performance, job satisfaction, and individual growth. Outside of work, she enjoys reading and spending time with loved ones.
Sipian Akinyi
Group Coordinator
Sipian’s role in the field involves a mix of calling leads and mobilizing potential clients, supervising groups and making deliveries, feeding data into the system, checking clients getting into arrears and making follow ups on payments.
Daniel Ndungu
Head of Field Operations
Daniel leads the fields and logistics teams and with over 10 years of operational and project management experience drives performance, fosters cross-departmental collaboration and standardises processes. You can be sure, when a blockbuster movie hits the theater, he won’t miss it.
Vivian Luvanda
Data Quality Officer
Vivian ensures the accuracy and integrity of company data, supporting field staff to keep sales, client, and payment records up to date. She believes quality data is essential for achieving strategic goals — after all, poor data can cost businesses up to 30% of their revenue. For Vivian and Bidhaa Sasa, reliable data is a must, not just a “nice to have.”
Ibrahim Musa
Credit Risk Analyst
Ibrahim oversees credit, operational, and behavioral risk management while leading customer support and data audits. Passionate about leveraging data to improve risk practices and compliance, he brings a detail-driven approach to his role. Off-hours, he’s a Manchester United fan and a culinary experimenter.
Jennifer Luhombo
Area Coordinator
Jennifer leads a dedicated team in rural areas, driving sales and building strong community ties to ensure easy access to affordable, eco-friendly products. As a crucial part of our execution, she motivates her team to deliver exceptional customer service. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, especially her favorite dish, silver cyprinid (omena).
Sagesse Magezi
IT & Digital Product Manager
Sagesse brings over a decade of expertise in project and digital product management, software development, and process improvement. Known for a strong commitment to social impact, he excels at bridging business and IT teams. Currently, he manages IT systems, including Salesforce CRM, driving efficiency and collaboration.
Partners
