University Graduates' Biotech Start-Up Wins Investment Deal
More than £370,000 has been put into a biotech start-up founded by University of Strathclyde graduates who want to find new uses for coffee grounds.
Revive Eco, based in Glasgow, is developing palm oil alternatives from recycled coffee grounds for the food & beverage and cosmetics industries.
In the most recent funding round, which was led by Gabriel Investment Syndicate and included the University of Strathclyde's Strathclyde Inspire Entrepreneurs Fund, Scottish Enterprise, Crowd Cube, and private investors, £376,000 was raised to commercialise a patent-pending process for recycling coffee grounds into a sustainable palm oil alternative.
Co-founders Fergus Moore and Scott Kennedy started the green tech company in Glasgow in 2019. This came after they worked on a project while they were undergraduates at the University of Strathclyde and when they both worked in coffee shops in the city.
Their unique concept is to collect and reuse used coffee grounds to save about 500,000 tonnes of coffee waste from being sent to landfills annually. The waste would then be used to make new products.
Revive Eco uses high-value, natural chemicals from coffee grounds to make an alternative to palm oil that can be used in cosmetics, cleaning products, pharmaceuticals, food, and drinks.
Annually, around 70 million tonnes of palm oil, which is found in many household products, are produced. Its production is one of the primary reasons for deforestation and carbon emissions worldwide.
The investment round, which also included the University of Strathclyde and Scottish Enterprise, will help the company grow its team by adding people with engineering skills and making more products.
Fergus Moore, Co-founder of Revive Eco, said: “With the support of our investors, we can progress our mission to make coffee the most sustainable commodity on the planet and move our production from the lab to industrial scale.”
University of Strathclyde Investment Manager Anne Henderson said: “We are proud to have supported Revive Eco through Strathclyde Inspire, from helping the company to research and grow their initial idea to providing early-stage funds to enable the business to bring the investment deal together, through to securing investment from the Strathclyde Inspire Entrepreneurs Fund alongside our investment partners.
"The University is committed to assisting entrepreneurs from the start, and we're excited to continue doing so as the company moves on to the next exciting stage of its journey."
Source: University of Strathclyde
