Monthly update from our startups

Exciting news from Cellugy! The sustainable packaging startup has received a new piece of equipment that will help boost its research and development efforts. The new lab container arrived this week and the team has been busy setting it up in the Alfa Laval Innovation House. The container is an important addition to the lab, providing a sterile environment for the R&D work with Cellugy's bacteria and assisting with the production of the company's innovative #EcoFLEXY material. Over the coming days, the team will be working to prepare the container for use, ensuring that it is fully equipped and ready to go! Congratulations to the Cellugy team on this exciting development! We can't wait to see what new breakthroughs they will achieve!

Check out their latest LinkedIn posts here

Circular IQ has formed a new alliance with Circularity, a company from New Zealand, in which they will implement a data-driven approach to identify, measure, and evaluate circular economy solutions to reduce the emissions generated from the use of materials, packaging, water, and energy. By using their innovative Circular by Design methodology and the CTI tool, they can accurately measure the circular performance of products, materials, and processes, meeting the expectations of both stakeholders and consumers for sustainable production and consumption. This project is a great example of success: their work with Profile Group has helped the company to improve their packaging circularity from 64% to 90% and provide an action plan to achieve nearly 100% circularity of packaging materials by 2025.

To read their article, click here

Entocycle has announced a partnership with the University of Leeds to research the use of insects in circular on-farm feed systems. Entocycle will supply and install a 40ft walk-in insect-raising unit at the Centre for Innovation Excellence in Livestock’s (CIEL) National Pig Centre at the University of Leeds Research Farm. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the use of pig manure and slurries as a feedstock for black soldier fly (BSF) and other insect species under high-density and environmentally controlled conditions. The partnership is manifolded: from one perspective it aims to explore the potential of BSF farming to reduce the environmental impact of animal residues and on the other it seeks to reduce the dependence on imported high-protein feeds.

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This month, our Green Alley Award 2022 finalist Flexi-Hex has two important news to share. First, they have received the King´s Award for Enterprise for Innovation. This is one of the most prestigious awards for UK businesses and aims to recognise and celebrate business excellence in innovation, international trade, sustainable development and promoting social opportunities. The second important step for Flexi-Hex is their nomination, from a pool of 750 to the last 20, to participate in the Next Unicorn investment program: created by James Watt - who developed a brand-new investment model - partnering with Crowdcube, aims at building and creating businesses. One important aspect of the project: anyone will be able to invest in these companies.  Good luck to the team!

Click here to read their LinkedIn post!

Sulapac, our 2017 Green Alley Award Winner, has received a loan financing from Nefco, the Nordic Green Bank. The financing will enable the company to scale up its operations globally and establish small-scale manufacturing capabilities in Finland to accelerate research and development into innovative and sustainable materials and manufacture commercial small-scale batches. Nefco is interested in investing in companies to help them solidify their sustainable business strategies. For Suvi Haimi – CEO and co-founder of Sulapac – this represents a great opportunity as they will be able to grow as a sustainable company within the cosmetic sector and therefore be able to provide new sustainable and recyclable solutions accelerating a plastic waste-free future.

Click here to see their latest news

TrusTrace has announced a strategic partnership with Kharon, a leading provider in research and data. With this new alliance, TrusTrace has multiple objectives: on the one hand, strengthen processes around forced labour risk identification and validation, and on the other hand, help customers to leverage Kharon's risk insights directly on the TrusTrace platform, allowing them to identify suppliers with increased risk of exposure to forced labour. Besides forced labours, customers will also be able to trace fashion and retail data verified in real-time. As TrusTrace CEO Shameek Ghosh reports in his last interview this new service will facilitate risk monitoring and evidence collection to prove compliance with the UFLPA law and similar laws globally.

Here you can read their latest news