Biomass Group was founded by Lucky Dissanayake in 2012 with the holding company based in Singapore.
The company started in 2009, when Lucky met Dr. Ray Wijewardene and was inspired by his vision of a green energy secure Sri Lanka. She worked with Dr. Parakrama Jayasinghe on a research and development phase over two years to explore the opportunity of biomass power being a means to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers across Sri Lanka. Outgrower schemes, although prevalent in the tea and coconut sectors, were non-existent in the biomass sector. Thus, the primary focus from the start has been on developing a robust and sustainable biomass supply chain to serve as the basis for a downstream expansion into value-added pellet manufacturing and biomaterials.
In 2012, the International Finance Corporation provided grant funds for a feasibility study on the possibility of planting Gliricidia intercropped with tea. Since 2012 the Biomass Group has been funded by several international investors. In September 2017 InfraCo Asia – a Singapore based infrastructure development company became the 1st institutional investor. InfraCo Asia is a company of the multi-donor Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) and is currently funded by three of its members – the UK Department for International Development (UKAid), the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).
Sri Lanka was chosen to demonstrate Biomass Group’s business model, by leveraging the country’s abundant biomass resources from Gliricidia trees. This is an agro-energy program that combines Food AND Sustainable Fuel AND Livelihood Development.
Through Biomass Supplies, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Biomass Group, they directly source biomass feedstock through their outgrower model supply chain which includes smallholder farmers, plantations, the Catholic Church, and Buddhist temples etc. They maintain positive, long-term relationships with their suppliers as they are the center of their operations.
