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A startup in southern Brazil has turned a familiar household frustration into a growing business: lighting charcoal for a weekend barbecue. According to single-source reporting from G1's Pequenas Empresas & Grandes Negócios, entrepreneur Wilian Biolo developed a bag of charcoal designed to ignite with a built-in system, removing the need for alcohol or other accelerants and helping the company pass R$ 1 million in revenue in 2025.
The product comes from Pareci Novo, a small town in Rio Grande do Sul, the southern state where barbecue culture is especially strong. In Brazil, the churrasqueira, or barbecue grill, is a social ritual as much as a cooking method, but getting charcoal to catch fire can be messy, slow and, in some cases, dangerous.
How It Works
Biolo's solution is simple in concept. The charcoal is sold inside a paper package that includes an internal ignition device. The user tears open two parts of the bag, lights the built-in starter and places the package upright in the grill.
Inside the package, the product uses a wooden structure designed to keep air circulating, which helps the fire spread more evenly through the charcoal. G1 reported that this allows the charcoal to light faster and more uniformly, without the blowing, fanning and ash-heavy handling common in a traditional setup.
The packaging is also part of the pitch. According to the report, the bag uses natural kraft paper, water-based inks and vegetable glue, allowing the whole package to burn together with the charcoal without affecting the flavor of the food. Biolo told the outlet the product is meant to solve three recurring problems at once: safety, convenience and dirt.
From Prototype to Scale
Biolo's background appears central to the product's design. G1 said he grew up around grills at his family's steakhouse and also spent more than two decades as a volunteer firefighter. That mix of barbecue know-how and fire-safety awareness shaped a product aimed at reducing risk in a task many Brazilians treat as routine.
The business did not arrive quickly. The report says Biolo spent about two years testing the idea and produced more than 200 prototypes before bringing the patented product to market. He now runs the operation from a warehouse with four employees and a production capacity of up to 5,000 bags a month.
The charcoal is sold in three-kilogram and four-kilogram packages at an average price of R$ 32, roughly USD 6 at recent rates. Distribution has expanded to several Brazilian states, suggesting that the appeal may extend beyond Rio Grande do Sul's traditional barbecue base.
Revenue Growth
The company's growth figures show how a narrow consumer problem can become a viable niche business. G1 reported that revenue stood at about R$ 62,000 in the first year of sales, in 2021, and climbed to more than R$ 1 million, roughly USD 200,000 at recent rates, in 2025.
Biolo told the outlet that the long development phase brought moments of doubt but did not stop the project. He said the product emerged from a habit of looking not only at a problem, but also at a possible solution.
For now, the story is less about a technology breakthrough than about product design meeting a specific Brazilian habit. In a country where charcoal grilling remains a mass consumer ritual, a safer and cleaner way to start the fire may be enough to build a business.
accessed on 21 April 2026