Two UCL student start-ups for making it to the finals of the 2017 Mayor’s Entrepreneur Competition

2 May 2017

UCL student start-ups Captum Technology and Stripped packaging-free-pasta made it to the finals of the Mayor’s Entrepreneur competition 2017 after a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style pitching event at City Hall. The competition challenged students from London Universities to come up with creative solutions to the urgent environmental and social challenges facing London. With a £20,000 cash prize and mentoring from Citi Foundation, there were more than 300 entries from 37 institutions. UCL’s Sustainability team and Innovation and Enterprise team are both proud and impressed with Captum and Stripped packaging-free-pasta for their pioneering proposals. Richard Jackson, UCL Director of Sustainability said:

" We’re delighted to have two UCL start-ups make it to the finals of the Mayor’s Entrepreneur Competition 2017 and are extremely proud of our students. It is a remarkable achievement to make it to the finals of one of London’s most prestigious student competition, tackling what can be argued is one of, if not the biggest challenge London faces: integrating the city into a low carbon, circular economy. We take our hats off to all of the students that applied. The success of our students’ year-on-year in the competition demonstrates their creativity, entrepreneurship and knowledge of sustainability. We encourage students to continue to compete in the competition and transform the green economy.”

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said:

" I’m hugely impressed by the quality of entries. It’s testament to the creativity and talent in London’s world-leading universities that such a range of innovative solutions have been developed to make our city a better place for future generations.”

Our finalists

Stripped packaging-free-pasta

Stripped packaging-free-pasta was founded by UCL students Amy Butterworth Fernandes and Anne Spira, with the aim of eliminating packaging for one of the world’s most popular food types. The UK alone produces more than 170m tonnes of waste each year, with much of it being food packaging. A large proportion is either poisonous or can never be degraded, and a large proportion ends up in our oceans, damaging wildlife and habitats.

Captum Technology

UCL PhD students Sam Ghazizadeh and Hossein Bahrami studying Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, founded Captum Technology. The London-based and UCL home-grown start-up sets out to reduce CO₂ emissions emitted from industrial plants on a far greater scale than currently possible, with the aim of helping UK industries meet their CO₂ reduction targets before 2050. According to the latest statistics released by the UK government, London on its own is responsible for about 10% of the UK’s CO2 emission. With this in mind Captum Technology are developing novel methods to capture CO₂ emissions released from industrial plants and convert it into valuable materials which could be sold to manufacturing industries. Captum Technology are offering their technology at no cost to the emitting industries and in doing so are creating a unique value proposition that can help industries reduce their CO₂ emissions in a financially viable way.

Captum Technology, said:

" The competition gave us a great exposure and also the opportunity to talk to various CEOs and investors invited to the City Hall. We received very positive and constructive feedbacks about our project, all of which will help us to move forward more confidently. Although at the end we did not win the competition, our experience with the Mayor’s competition has been indeed empowering. We had to be well prepared in front of the judges – very similar to the Dragons’ Den style, to present our idea very concisely but clearly. This, on its own, was a great skill we acquired from the process. At the end of the day, it’s all about how we present ourselves and sell our idea in a compelling way.”

Sam Ghazizadeh and Hossein Bahrami heard about the 2017 Mayor of London Entrepreneur competition through UCL Innovation and Enterprise and were inspired by UCL Alumnus Arthur Kay (BSc Architecture 2013) who won the competition in 2012 with bio-bean, a start-up company which turns coffee waste into bio-fuel. Sam Ghazizadeh and Hossein Bahrami are currently seeking support, endorsement and investments from interested parties in the UK to make their idea a reality and have said that being finalists in the Mayor’s competition has served them very well so far.

Support and Opportunities at UCL

UCL Innovation and Enterprise

Captum Technology received expert advice from the UCL Innovation and Enterprise Business Acceleration Advisors. If you too would like support and advice for your business idea, UCL’s Business Acceleration Advisors can provide students (undergraduate and postgraduate) and recent alumni with support to start, build and grow your businesses. Their advice is impartial, confidential and practical. Whatever stage your business is at – whether you’re planning it or it’s already been operating for some time – UCL’s business acceleration advisors can help. To request a meeting, complete the Business Idea Form and email it to sba@ucl.ac.uk.

UCL Innovation and Enterprise also offer a wide range of interactive and immersive experiences designed to enrich your time at UCL and prepare you for the world beyond. These include developing entrepreneurial thinking, enterprise boot camps, entrepreneurship guest lectures, one-to-one business advice and co-working space. Further information is detailed on the UCL Innovation and Enterprise website.

Environmental Opportunities at UCL

If you are interested in developing a career in environmental sustainability, or simply have an interest in the environment, visit Sustainable UCL for opportunities and events. Below are a few initiatives that you can get involved in today:

Receive IEMA-accredited training and practical experience this May by volunteering as a Green Impact Auditor.
Use UCL’s campus and operations as a focus for research and study with the Living Lab project. It works to unlock UCL’s expertise and tackle sustainability challenges by bringing people together and using the campus as a test bed for new ideas.
Join UCL’s Conservation Group and get involved in everything from bird talks to insect nights, and conservation work.
Get your hands dirty with UCL's student-led allotment project, Bentham’s Farm or at the IOE Gardens.
Collaborate with an organisation to undertake a dissertation which will help solve real economic, social and environmental sustainability issues with Dissertations for Good.
Become a global citizen by responding to some of the real-world questions tackled by the UCL Grand Challenges, or by working with a local voluntary organisation to meet the needs of the local community. See Global Citizenship programme.