In a high-profile move, Brooklyn-based BioLite — maker of electronic fire pits, cook stoves, headlamps, and camp lighting — announced its acquisition today of power station titan Goal Zero. The move creates a formidable entity in the portable power market, as the two brands manufacture a full suite of battery- and solar-powered accessories for camping, outdoor, and off-grid living.
BioLite acquired Goal Zero from parent company NRG, though the financial details were not made public. Jonathan Cedar, co-founder of BioLite and now CEO of both brands, told GearJunkie that while there is some product overlap, Goal Zero will lead the charge for larger power products, while BioLite continues to build out its core product lines.
“We’re gonna find subtle distinctions, but there’s room in areas like lighting and power banks where both brands still have a unique and independent point of view,” Cedar said. “And then areas where I think we’re more likely to delegate to one brand or the other to carry that category — kilowatt for Goal Zero, cooling for Goal Zero, and cooking and fire for BioLite.”
Goal Zero Under BioLite Banner
With the acquisition, BioLite’s ranks swell from 90 employees up to 120, as Goal Zero retains its current Salt Lake City headquarters and operations. Cedar noted that while some logistics are still being finalized, he sees the two brands creating mutual benefit operationally and culturally.
“Broadly speaking, we’re really trying to kind of keep the best of both teams in play. Some of the departments will be led by the Goal Zero existing senior leadership. Some will be led by BioLite’s existing senior leadership,” he said.
“Certainly, we think through our combined scale, we can deliver more product innovation and better levels of service for our customers by really combining on the back end. So we will become one product development organization, one sales organization, one operations, one finance on the backside.”
This marks the second acquisition by BioLite in the last 6 months. In October, the brand announced it had acquired MPOWERD, purveyor of the nearly ubiquitous inflatable Luci lanterns. There’s a common thread between the two: Both MPOWERD and Goal Zero share similar humanitarian stories as part of each brands’ inception. MPOWERD grew out of a focus on disaster relief aid, and Goal Zero (originally called GoBe) evolved from social and economic prosperity measures in rural Africa.
In both instances, BioLite identified companies that not only complemented its product lineup, but mirrored its values and mission, according to Cedar.
“We were very lucky that two really well-fitting brands came to market in a way that fit our strategy in such close-time proximities,” he told GearJunkie.
“BioLite is heavily motivated by our global energy access mission and both of these brands really shared that ethos. Both brands are amazing in terms of having built products that consumers absolutely love and [have] done it on an impact platform that really tried to blend their recreation market work with humanitarian assistance work, which is really the center of the bull’s eye for BioLite.”
BioLite + Goal Zero: What Lies Ahead?
As synergistic as the two brands may be, there are some products that seem to directly compete with one another. BioLite only recently entered the power station market, releasing its BaseCharge unit in 2022. Since then, the brand has slowly expanded its offerings in the space — even receiving positive marks from GearJunkie editors.
But Cedar admitted that the BioLite brand’s future in the kilowatt-scale category is “a little bit TBD.” He called Goal Zero the “flagship brand” for power stations and even teased some big innovations on the horizon.
“I won’t blow the secrets yet,” he laughed. “We’re going to release stuff this summer — some really nice leveling-up of the core technologies and the Goal Zero power stations coming to market for spring ’26.”
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