SolFoil

Most portable solutions for outdoor cooking and heating are expensive, bulky and heavy creating also waste, smoke and a risk of fire. Chemical heating pouches are the only alternative that can be integrated to prepacked packages, but they are expensive, hard to dispose and have caused cases of explosion. 

Ultra-lightweight and portable solar heated packages heat the content safely and easily thanks to highly effective solar coating on top, just by placing the product in the sunlight. Packages can be in many forms, materials and sizes and the content can be prepacked such as ready meals or medical materials, or packed by the user, such as re-usable water heating pouch.

We want to make anyone’s lives better and healthier, but also be part of food system transformation.

The adoption of modern technologies in the early stages of supply chains (harvest,storage, transport) in developing countries is still relatively low. 20% of the food that is produced in the developing countries by small-scale farmers gets loss due to lack of access processing equipment and energy. We want to support small-scale producers by giving them access to sustainable energy to reduce the food loss during the preservation steps and add value to their customers. 

As an example we will provide a solution that combines food preservation, storing and heating. That is a re-usable sack or pouch, that has solar selective coating on top. The sizes and forms can be various. When you place the product in the sunlight, the coating facing the sun, the content starts to heat up by conduction, therefore, allowing for example pasteurizing. Solar selective coating is ceramic, non-toxic and very durable.

There can be a simple indicator that tells when the temperature of the content has reached certain temperature.

The technology can be utilized also in other applications, where ultra-portable, affordable and easy to use solutions are needed, for example regarding water pasteurization. 

Having means to preserve food already at the farm will enhance food availability, safety and shelf life. For many small holder and subsistence level farmers, food loss can have dire consequences. It directly impacts poor producers through foregone income and impacts poor consumers through reduced food availability, increased prices, and decreased nutritional content. 

Given that many small holder farmers in developing countries live on the margins of food insecurity, a reduction in food losses could have an immediate and significant impact on their livelihood and wellbeing. 

We will get feedback through partners, that can be for example parts of United Nations.

Our solar heated technology aligns closest to dimension of improving supply chain practices to reduce food loss. The problem is, that currently food loss has severe consequences to small-scale farmers and society. By using sustainable solar energy and very accessible preservation products, it is possible to reduce the loss. 

Current solutions for food preservation are heavy, bulky and expensive, and small-scale farmers in the developing countries don't often have access on them.

Our solution is very affordable, lightweight and portable. We have got a patent for combining the package with solar selective coating, and the products with mentioned features don't exist yet, therefore they are unique.

When faced towards sunlight (or any other source of Infra Red), the ceramic and non-toxic solar selective coating heats up the content of the package very effectively by conduction, because it has very high absorption, but very low emission of heat.

Link to the 1-minute winter video made utilizing the prototype of one grilling bag type heating pouch, SolBag: https://youtu.be/SCPuUKS0Q-w

Link to 1-minute video, that shows how the temperature goes up inside a SolBag prototype in the sunlight: https://youtu.be/Zyq-hnh_mRI

We have been cooking raw salmon and chicken fillet inside a prototype solar heated pouch in less than half an hour. The flatter the content, and the sunnier the whether is, the faster the products heat. What you need is a whether what anyone would describe as "sunny".

At the moment small-scale farmers have limited access to food preservation. The equipment is expensive and energy needed to use them is not available. Larger scale food processing happens often so far from the farm, that it is limiting the access to preserve all the food on time. Increasing access to new affordable sustainable solar preservation technologies will reduce food loss, and therefore improve food availability and nutritional value as well as small-scale farmers income and the price of the food.

We don't have a ready product yet, but it is highly scalable and easy to develop and manufacture. Therefore large user base can be reached in shorter time.

In 2 years we have the products in many developing countries with the support of NGO's.

Our products are highly scalable, and we want to bring them to people in developing countries through global and regional NGO's. That will ensure proper distribution to the people who need them.

In 2025 SolFoil has become a well-known game-changer and the world leader in the solar heated packaging. SolFoil is having both consumer and industrial product lines and having also a good understanding about consumers’ and industrial partners’ needs. This gives the company a good insight and advantage when creating and developing new products from end user point of view. The company has gained a worldwide clients’ and production partners’ network, both in business, science & research and non-profit organizations. SolFoil is taking visible and leading role in the sustainability issues and discussions and is committed to minimize CO2 emissions throughout the whole value chain and the production process.  

We have accomplished the first state and investor funded R&D project for creating solar heating pouches, that act also as a base for many other applications. At the moment we seek funding, that is challenging especially these days.

Working with NGO's lowers the barriers to get to markets. 

We want to strengthen the business case of SolFoil to be attractive to investors, and improve as a company and entrepreneurs.

Founders;

Nina Borger: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ninaborger/

Alle Borger: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alleborger/

Aki Luukkainen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aki-luukkainen-71a34/

Advisors:

Tuomo Hyysalo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tuomohyysalo/

Rita Hyysalo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rita-hyysalo-a69395b1/

Tomi Terentjeff: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terentjeff/

Founders:

Nina Borger, CEO, inventor of the concept, background in sales and purchasing. Sales-focused and has a customer-driven mindset.

Alle Borger, CTO, strong technical background in engineering, project management and product development. Innovative and solid technical knowledge about manufacturing, materials and coatings.

Aki Luukkainen, CFO, technical and commercial background and excellent experience, network, and proven ability to help to get businesses forward.

Our Advisors Tomi Terentjeff, Tuomo and Rita Hyysalo bring their great business expertise to the team with wide network especially in US, Middle East and Asia.

We are also just getting international food supply chain experts in our team, who have the biggest interest to be part of food system transformation. They share the values what we have, but have also very solid knowledge and background of understanding the food supply chain deeper also from developing country point of view.

United Nations, Red Cross, and Adra will test and give feedback on our first industrially manufactured prototypes, but we have been in discussions with many others also, and the feedback has been encouraging.

We will sell B2B and B2G. We can also license the technology for specific needs. 

Our key customers regarding our mentioned solution are NGO's. There is a clear need for food preservation, but United Nations have also suggested us to make other products, such as solar heated outdoor shower to refugee camps. 

Therefore, we always want to provide the products that are needed, and develop them in co-operation with our customers to bring the best possible value to the end user.

By becoming a Solver we can strengthen the business case and take a leap as a company. 

We will learn a lot, gain extremely relevant network, and accelerate in bringing our solutions to market. 

We are looking to build up the network for partners that can distribute our products to the right end-users. We are looking for funding to accelerate the piloting and mass-production. Gaining visibility through being Solver and raising general awareness of our solutions will help us in growing our business.

We would like to partner with relevant NGO's with distributing the products to customers, and with MIT faculty to improve the technology and reduce the overall cost of the technology to make it even more accessible to the people that need them.  

Women in the developing countries spend up to 4 hours daily looking for fuel, such as wood, for cooking and food preservation. That time could be better spent on other activities such as schooling in case of girls. It is often dangerous to pick up wood due to long distances.

Our solution provide sustainable and re-usable energy solutions, that reduce the need for picking up fire wood.

The prize would be used for accelerating the development of our products, that bring significant value to women. The price money can be matched with state funding to increase the impact of the price.