Monthly update from our startups

In March, the former Green Alley Award finalist Dimpora participated in CO Expo 2022, which is an annual event program to showcase the latest innovation, leadership, and best practice in sustainable fabrics, components, and production from all around the world. The event is organized by Common Objective (CO), which is an intelligent business network with more than 50,000 members, which serves to match fashion professionals with the connections and information they need to succeed sustainably. The program this year focused on material innovation trends, production and sourcing solutions. Dimpora presented their eco-friendly functional membranes for the outdoor textile industry, and recently announced that they are currently scaling up their first biodegradable membrane.

Click here to watch the recordings 

San Francisco, home to Silicon Valley, the birthplace of many huge tech companies and hotspot for startups. Guess who else went there recently? Our former Green Alley Award winner Gelatex! Apart from giving a talk at prestigious Stanford University about the founding story of their startup, they also participated in Future Food-Tech from March 24-25, a summit and annual meeting place for the global food-tech ecosystem. Food brands, active investors, startups and technology leaders come together to exchange insights, get inspired and to identify future partners. Gelatex CEO Märt-Erik elaborated on the future of cultured meat live on stage. Gelatex’ patented nanofiber production technology will enable the production of cultured meat in the future that will in the end cost less than 1 Euro per kilo.

Find out more about the Food-Tech Summit here

Conventionally, expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) is used to insulate deliveries. Aeropowder aims at sustainably disrupting this with its product Pluumo, which is a high-performance feather-based textile that can be reused, recycled and industrially composted. Since their great success in the Green Alley Award 2018, the British startup achieved a lot: they generated revenue, are currently negotiating licensing in the US, and have washed a total of 1000 kilograms of chicken feathers to just name a few of their achievements. On LinkedIn, they recently foreshadowed that they are currently working on a “top-secret project involving our next innovation that will come after our groundbreaking sustainable thermal packaging made from surplus feathers”. We are excited to see what’s next!

Find out more about their product Pluumo in this video

The Czech startup participated in two events this month. First, MIWA’s executive director Mirek Lizec appeared as a keynote speaker at the 11th World Environmental Education Congress, which took place in Prague and was organized by the Swiss Embassy in the Czech Republic. The congress’s aim is to connect people and enable the exchange about environmental and sustainability education between people from all over the world. Moreover, the startup participated in the Circular Economy Innovation gathering by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in London. The foundation is a charity committed to accelerate the transition to a circular economy. To achieve this, they work together with businesses, international institutions, governments, cities, universities, NGOs and innovators. MIWA as a sustainable business aiming at minimizing single-use packing, clearly fits into the foundation’s network.

Find out more about the Ellen MacArthur foundation here

Last month, refurbed’s co-founder Kilian Kaminski spoke at the Darwin’s Circle conference in Vienna on the topic “Technology Pushing Through Barriers – The Path to Reaching the SDGs”. The annual event took place on March 30 and serves to connect international digital experts and decision makers to address global socio-economic challenges. Besides the conference and networking platform, Darwin’s Circle is currently designing an academy, which will be a learning hub for future skills. In the cause of the conference, Kilian Kaminski was interviewed by brutkasten, and talked about his startup’s next goals, their greatest challenges and revealed that they are just about to welcome their 200 employee, which is a big milestone for refurbed. We are looking forward to more exciting developments!

Find out more about Darwin’s Circle

Via their LinkedIn page, the former Green Alley Award winner Adaptavate announced that they managed to raise a 2,2 million pounds (2,9 million euros) investment, with support of Low Carbon Innovation Fund, Counteract, Perivoli Innovations and OnePlanetCapital with co-funding from Innovate UK. Adaptavate’s technology helps to make the construction industry more sustainable. Plasterboard is the third-most used building material in the world and responsible for 3,5% of the country’s annual emissions. Adaptavate offers an alternative made from agricultural waste and a lime-based binding agent that absorbs carbon dioxide. The company will use their new investment to build their pilot line and test facility in Bristol to license their technology to manufacturers of building materials all around the world.

Read the corresponding article here