Startup Update – Carbon Cell
In this special feature, we have Elizabeth Lee, the CEO of Carbon Cell and the 2024 Green Alley Award finalist, to uncover the company's latest news and the potential of their sustainable alternative to traditional polymer-based foams.
Congratulations on being a finalist of the Green Alley Award 2024! How do you think this has impacted or will impact your company? What changes have you already experienced since the event?
As a Green Alley Award finalist we have made a huge amount of valuable new connections - be they other startup founders working in the sustainability space, or large established businesses who could be partners or provide support. These connections and conversations have been tremendous for us!
Since the event we've been forging ahead with our R&D plan, conducting manufacturing tests and kicking off a new grant project. We have also continued to have conversations with a wider range of EU-based partners and customers who reached out to us following the event.
Have you initiated any new partnerships since after participating in the award? If so, can you share more details about them?
We haven't initiated any formal new partnerships since participating in the award, but we hope to do so in the coming months.
How do you believe collaboration and partnerships can support the growth and development of your business?
Collaboration and partnerships are essential to us receiving feedback and making improvements to our product, enabling us to deliver a better solution that fulfils our sustainability goals. We're also keen to collaborate with broader stakeholders, be they manufacturers, regulators, or waste management groups to ensure our solution fits well within a holistic transition to greener materials.
What are the next steps, and how do you envision your company's evolution in the coming months/year?
Our key next step is to deliver several small scale pilot projects for early adopters who we're currently collaborating with, as well to refine our manufacturing process to enable us to scale; we're actively soliciting any partners interested in joining the waiting list for larger scale pilots in 2025.
What is one achievement of your company that you would like to share?
We are incredibly proud of how far we've come in such a short period of time. It was just two years ago this month that our co-founding team started working together on what was then simply an idea on paper. In two short years we have gone from abstract vision to reality, creating a new patent-pending material and beginning the process of commercialising it, making our way through the journey as first-time entrepreneurs along the way.
Thank you!!