Revive Eco has secured a £375,000 investment led by Gabriel Investment Syndicate to commercialise a patent-pending process to recycle coffee grounds into a sustainable palm oil alternative.
The Glasgow-based green tech start-up was launched by co-founders Fergus Moore and Scott Kennedy in 2019, following a project the pair carried out during their undergraduate degree at the University of Strathclyde and when both worked in coffee shops in the city.
With over 500,000 tonnes of used coffee grounds produced in the UK every year, costing the coffee industry around £80m per annum in waste removal, Revive Eco extracts high-value, natural chemicals from coffee grounds to create a palm oil alternative that can be used across the cosmetics, home cleaning, pharmaceutical, and food and drink sectors.
Approximately 70 million tonnes of palm oil, which is found in many household products, are produced annually, with its production being one of the main drivers of deforestation and carbon emissions globally.
The investment round, in which Scottish Enterprise and the University of Strathclyde also participated, will support the company as it looks to grow its team - including by adding engineering expertise - and scale up its manufacturing capability.
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.”
Revive Eco is set to begin trials with a number of big brands in the UK and across Europe, and hopes to announce a series of partnerships and contract wins during 2023.
Moore added: “With the rise of ESG, corporations and manufacturers are under increasing pressure to find alternatives to palm oil, so the moment for us to help bring about change is here and now.”
Gill MacAulay, director at Gabriel IS, said: “We are thrilled to be supporting Revive Eco with this investment, and we are excited that the business will now have the capability to make a real difference to sustainability levels in the coffee industry.“
Revive Eco recently appointed former Archangels chief executive and experienced non-executive director John Waddell as chair.
He said: “Fergus and Scott have an absolute passion for the business, and when you match that with a significant international market opportunity which will also address the global climate challenge, the prospects for the company are very exciting.”
In 2019, Revive Eco received £235,000 of funding from Zero Waste Scotland, the Stirling-based non-government organisation. The company also completed a successful crowdfunding campaign on the Crowdcube platform earlier this year.
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