Shell awards £180K to two British low-carbon entrepreneurs

Seawater Greenhouse was last night crowned Shell Springboard national winner by Sinead Lynch, Chair of Shell UK, winning a total of £150,000.

And MiAlgae beat five other national finalists to be crowned Shell Young Entrepreneur of the Year, winning a total of £30,000.

Shell Springboard and Shell LiveWIRE enable Shell to support the most promising low-carbon and sustainability technologies which have the potential to play an important part in the transition to a lower-carbon world.

Winner I: Seawater Greenhouse

The London-based 2018 Shell Springboard National Winner, Seawater Greenhouse, receives a total of £150,000 to support the growth and commercialisation of its ‘cool house’ technology that evaporates sea water to create a cool and humid microclimate to grow crops in arid coastal environments around the world.

Charlie Paton, managing director of Seawater Greenhouse, was chosen from six national finalists, out of a total of 125 applicants to the programme.

Winner II: MiAlgae

Edinburgh-based Douglas Martin from MiAlgae was awarded a total of £30,000 as the Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

The equity-free funding will help MiAlgae to develop its product which uses by-products of the whisky industry to grow micro-algae which can be used to sustainably farm fish.

This reduces the environmental impact of the distilleries while simultaneously producing valuable nutrients at affordable prices.

90% of UK’s low-carbon firms are SMEs

Sinead Lynch, Chair of Shell UK, comments after the awards, held at the Royal Academy of Engineering: “Seawater Greenhouse and MiAlgae are two of Britain’s brightest, most promising innovations to support a more sustainable, low-carbon world.

“Around 90% of all businesses in the UK’s low-carbon sector are SMEs and providing equity-free funding through Shell LiveWIRE and Shell Springboard can be the difference between make or break for some of these companies.”

Nearly half a million pounds (£435,000) in funding has been distributed in 2018, with all six regional Shell Springboard finalists also receiving £40,000 each.

Alongside the funding, the winners of both programmes also receive a tailored programme of business support from Shell. More than eight in every ten (84%) of Shell Springboard and Shell LiveWIRE supported companies are still in operation within five years, compared to the national average of approximately 45%.