Monthly update from our startups

2022 Green Alley Award finalist Flexi-Hex is not only passionate about the coast, marine life and how to protect it, but they also care a lot about their region Cornwall. In June, they teamed up with “Origin Coffee” and organized a community litter pick in Porthleven. While cleaning up the Cornish coast, helpers could listen to talks about plastic pollution and Flexi-Hex and Origin Coffee presented their efforts to tackle the problem. Moreover, Flexi-Hex published an interview with Otter Surfboards – a fellow Cornish business that produces sustainable wooden surfboards which they ship in Flexi-Hex packaging material. They were founded in 2008 and share the same passion with Flexi-Hex, to “keeping our oceans free from plastic waste”.

Read the whole interview here 

MakeGrowLab's Co-founder Josh Brito was interviewed by Brighter Future for the series #originstory. Brighter Future is a Media Production that does brand communications for planet and purpose-driven organizations. During the very informative interview, Josh talks about his personal background and about why he believes that his childhood planted the entrepreneurial seed and his passion for nature in him. He also describes his startup MakeGrowLab and their innovation which is a unique technology to turn local food waste into natural, home-compostable and 100% plastic-free materials and that he is really enthusiastic about: “To be honest, I don’t really care if future generations remember me or not. I just really believe in this material.” Josh’s advice to young entrepreneurs is to surround themselves with people they want to be like.

If you would like to learn more about his tips and recommendations, read the very sympathetic and personal interview here

June was a very successful month for ScrapAd, because they got a lot of publicity and media attention. Apart from presenting their business idea, a platform for trading recyclable materials, in a meeting with more than 60 companies organized by the “Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa” and the Government Delegation in the Basque Country, they also attended several fairs, like the IFAT in Munich or the IFEMA in Madrid. Moreover, co-founder Sandra Montes was invited to be the keynote speaker for the talk “Creatividad, Innovación y Género” (Creativity, innovation and gender), which took place within the scope of the WIN (Women in Industry) event in Bilbao on June 14th. This was not the only talk round for Sandra though, as she also attended the “Think on Woman” meeting organized by the inbound marketing agency “Think on Marketing”. Last but not least, Sandra and co-founder Samuel Ruiz were interviewed by Vodafone and shared insights about their experiences, obstacles on the way and future goals.

Read their interview with Vodafone in Spanish

This year’s Green Alley Award winner Voltfang, who convinced the jury with their environmentally friendly and cost-efficient energy storage systems made of used electric vehicle batteries have been moving all around Germany last month. Apart from attending Hannovermesse in the beginning of June, where they shared a booth with Kompetenznetzwerk Umweltwirtschaft-NRW and 9 other startups, they also travelled all the way up to Berlin to participate in the Greentech Festival. The event serves as a platform for exchanging information and for networking centered around sustainability. Moreover, co-founder Roman Alberti spoke at Ecosummit 2022, which is an event for startups in the areas of energy, mobility and cities with the aim to counteract climate change.

Click here to watch the YouTube video in which Voltfang presents itself and its innovation for Hannovermesse in German

Dimpora, the startup that produces eco-friendly functional membranes for the outdoor textile industry, has been to various events last month. They went to Amsterdam for Fashion for Good’s 5th birthday, which is a global initiative to improve the fashion industry by supporting a network of change makers, reimagining how fashion is designed, made, worn, and reused for the good of people and planet. They also attended the ISPO in Munich, which is the biggest fair in the sports industry and also went to Stockholm for the Global Change Award. They even visited Frankfurt, which is very close to our office in Mainz, where they had a little booth at Techtextil, which is an international trade fair for textiles and nonwovens.

Learn more about TechTextile here

Last month, RePack published their first monthly newsletter on LinkedIn, which has already become a big success: More than 1,000 subscribers after the first publication! In this newsletter, they share thoughts, tips, and case studies around reusable packaging. This time, they also informed about their participation in E-Pack Europe Fair which took place in Amsterdam in Mid-June. Founder Jonne Hellgren updated on RePack’s reusable packaging for internal packaging needs and their collaboration with Decathlon Canada. Via their LinkedIn page, RePack also made aware of two new partnerships they established in June: Royal Canin, a healthy nutrition provider for cats and dogs, and Wol Hide, a sustainable high-quality clothing manufacturer, from now on ship their products in RePack’s sustainable packaging alternative.

Have a look at RePack’s first LinkedIn newsletter