Unreasonable Impact UK and Europe | February 2022

It is estimated that the global economy will need over 300 million new jobs in order to accommodate current unemployment, supplement projected job loss resulting from automated industries, and provide opportunities for the next generation. In 2015, 10.2% of the world’s workers were living with their families on less than $1.90 per person, per day. 946 million people remain with zero access to sanitation facilities and 757 million adults cannot read or write. And now with the global pandemic having a devastating effect on all facets of life, the situation is even more critical.

Unreasonable Impact, a multi-year initiative created with Barclays, was launched in 2016 with the principle aim of scaling growth equity companies addressing these very challenges, whilst also creating jobs. The partnership is designed around ensuring that the fastest growing and most impactful companies across different geographies (Europe, the Americas, and Asia Pacific) are best positioned for scale.

The launch of Unreasonable Impact UK + Europe sees the program support the 14 entrepreneurs that have been identified as critical drivers of change, with the incredibly innovative solutions necessary to meet these challenges at scale, from across the region. Over the course of the next few months, the now fully virtual program will support these entrepreneurs through a series of virtual gatherings and sessions which have been prototyped and perfected to align them with mentors, specialists, advice, resources and capital, as well as with each other.

Since the program’s global launch, the Unreasonable Impact community, made up of over 215 ventures, has positively impacted more than 255 million people, reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 49 million tons, and generated more than 47,000 net new jobs in more than 180 countries. The companies have also raised more than USD $5.7 billion in funding. These 14 companies join this unparalleled global network in its shared effort to drive lasting and scalable change.

Converting CO2 permanently into rock.

44.01

SECTOR

Mining & Drilling Technology

REGION

Oman, UK

ENTREPRENEUR

Talal

Hasan

TITLE

Founder & Carbon General

44.01 is fighting climate change by turning captured CO 2 into rock, using the natural power of mineralisation! Their process involves taking captured CO 2 underground, speeding up its reaction with peridotite, a rock which naturally mineralises CO 2 and permanently removing the CO 2 for thousands of years. The company acts as a service provider to carbon capture companies, providing them a solution to permanently remove their captured CO 2 from the planet. 44.01’s process is solely powered by clean energy and utilises solar thermal and PV during the day and biofuels at night. 44.01’s technology unlocks an impactful capacity of permanent CO 2 storage needed for the world to reduce levels of CO 2 in our atmosphere permanently.

Talal Hasan is the Founder and Carbon General of 44.01, a carbon mineralisation company fighting climate change by turning CO2 into rock.

Prior to 44.01, Talal assisted with the formation and launch of IDO Investments, a $130M VC fund owned by the government of Oman. Whilst at IDO, Talal served as the Senior Investment Manager, completed over a dozen technology investments globally, and served on various boards of startups.

Talal’s background is in corporate law, where he worked on a range of transactions, mostly in energy.

A-DEUS

Delivering the lowest cost, greenest, and most stable private netzero emissions marketplace.

SECTOR

Renewable Energy

REGION

Nigeria, UK

ENTREPRENEUR

TITLE

Founder &

a-deus.com

A-DEUS is a community-based, clean energy network that makes low-carbon energy accessible and affordable to everyone. When users join the A-DEUS network, they become a member of a highly efficient clean energy platform. They get an energy plan and an energy mortgage that will cut their lifetime energy costs and carbon emissions to the lowest levels.

A-DEUS’ high-efficiency and high-utilization low-carbon energy network produces up to 95% fewer emissions than traditionally delivered electricity and heating. It does this by integrating solar, fuel cell, solar, heat pump, and battery technology into one system’s architecture with smart AI-enabled energy management.

Dr. Damien Uduehi, Founder and CEO of A-DEUS, has dedicated his career to making clean energy affordable to all. He has worked in the energy sector for over 25 years, across upstream (exploration and production), midstream (LNG) and downstream (gas and power) to deliver an innovative solution for the UK and tackle the energy crisis in Nigeria.

He has a proven ability to originate, execute and manage new business, foster effective relationships and work with joint venture partners in developed and developing markets. He also has a proven record of accomplishments in contractual risk management, commercial negotiations, due diligence and economic evaluation.

Optimizing EV charging to reduce operating costs of EV fleets and support renewables on the grid.

Bia

SECTOR

Software as a Service

REGION

Canada, Netherlands, Spain

ENTREPRENEUR

TITLE

Founder & CEO

Bia is a software company focused on deploying critical technology for the electric vehicle (EV) charging industry. Bia has developed and commercialized EV charging software tools for infrastructure planning, data management, monitoring, optimization, and grid services. Their technology optimizes EV charging for the cheapest and greenest charge, smoothest loads, best integration with other energy systems, and lowest battery degradation. Bia’s proprietary technology is hardware agnostic, white-labeled, and designed with easy to deploy API access. Their intelligence layer can deliver on three core services offered by Bia: Business Intelligence, Simulations and Forecasting, and Optimisation. The accuracy and robustness of Bia’s technology have allowed them to win multiple tenders from Spain’s government to manage Madrid and Barcelona’s electric bus systems.

Candace Saffery Neufeld is the Founder and CEO of Bia, a Barcelona-based SaaS company working to reinvent the power grid by enabling sophisticated integration between clean energy and clean transport. A passionate and driven cleantech entrepreneur with over 15 years of proven leadership in EV, renewable energy, strategy and product innovation, Candace has an established track record as a catalyst to drive major change and dynamic growth. She previously served as CEO of Alpha Energy and COO at NaturEner, where she oversaw NaturEner’s innovative 24/7 operating center for utility scale wind farms. Candace also worked as a Product Manager at Sungevity, the first software company to design and sell residential solar online. Candace holds a BS in Chemistry from Trinity Western University and an Executive MBA from the Ivey Business School at Western University.

Improving the lifetime and reliability of lithium-ion batteries.

Brill Power

SECTOR Energy Storage

REGION UK

ENTREPRENEUR

Christoph Birkl

TITLE

Co-Founder &

brillpower.com

Brill Power develops intelligent battery management systems and control technology to increase the lifetime and reliability of lithium-ion battery packs for stationary energy storage and electric vehicles. Their hardware and software solution focuses on the protection circuit module (PCB) of the battery pack, known as the “heart” of a lithium-ion battery. Their patented hardware is a fully modular and scalable solution that allows for distributed energy control, and their complementary software includes edge computing functions tracking real-time sensor data to compute battery cell health, charge, and power capabilities to provide battery performance monitoring and analytics. Brill Power’s intelligent battery management system ensures lithiumion batteries are used to their full potential, increasing battery life up to 60%, lowering lifetime costs, supporting up to 46% more energy from used batteries, and reducing hazardous lithium-ion battery waste.

Christoph Birkl is the Co-Founder and CEO of Brill Power, a spinout company of Oxford University developing a new type of battery management and control technology to substantially improve the lifetime, performance and safety of batteries for energy storage and electric vehicles. He is an expert in energy storage and conversion with seven years of research experience in lithium-ion batteries and fuel cells. He holds a DPhil in Engineering from Oxford University and an MSc in Sustainable Energy Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark. Christoph and his co-founders met whilst pursuing doctorates in battery degradation, battery modeling and power electronics at Oxford. Whilst studying how batteries degrade over time, the team envisioned a method that would use every cell to its full potential. In 2016, they set out to make this into a reality by forming Brill Power.

Re-creating construction through fully circular and sustainable materials.

CRIATERRA

SECTOR

Building & Construction Technology

REGION

Israel, Netherlands, UK

ENTREPRENEUR Adital Ela

TITLE

Founder & CEO

criaterra.com

CRIATERRA Innovations has developed unique, patentprotected circular low carbon technologies for precast construction products. Innovation in this highly pollutive industry is imperative, and CRIATERRA’s products have low-carbon emissions, full circularity from cradle-to-cradle, and require nearly zero energy in production. CRIATERRA’s first product line of indoor tiles has been licensed for mass production in Europe, and they’re currently developing additional high performance pre-cast building products, including outdoor cladding and masonry blocks that are designed for structural excellence. They increase 6x thermal insulation properties, compared to similar products and reduce energy.

Adital Ela is the Founder and CEO of CRIATERRA Innovations. She is an industrial designer and impact-driven entrepreneur in the field of design for sustainability, specializing in reengineering the way constructive materials are manufactured and introducing fully regenerative construction products, such as wall tiles and bricks, within a circular economy. Adital is a member of the TED Fellows program, a lecturer on sustainable design and development at Holon Institute of Technology (HIT) and Switcher (a UN initiative), and former board member of the O2 Global Network. Prior to founding CRIATERRA, Adital served as CEO of Sustainable Sense by Design and Creative Director of SAZ Design Studio. She holds a BA in Product Design from HIT and a Master’s in Design from the Man and Humanity program at Design Academy Eindhoven.

Adital Ela

Pioneering next-generation fibers and materials.

ELeather

SECTOR Manufacturing & Supply Chain

REGION

55 countries

ENTREPRENEUR

TITLE

CEO

ELeather is an award-winning, environmentally-friendly materials technology company. Known as the pioneers of sustainable, engineered leather, they transform unused leather into high-performance materials, while achieving a significantly lower environmental footprint than traditional means. ELeather has built an enviable reputation for quality and service in demanding markets, and have partnered with some of the largest and most successful brands in the world. Founded in the UK, they have grown to export over 90% of sales to more than 50 countries and supply industries ranging from aviation to public transport and athletic footwear. So far, ELeather have saved over 8,000 tonnes of leather waste from landfill, reduced carbon emissions by over 250,000 tonnes, and supplied over 8 million m2 of ELeather to blue-chip brands. It’s leather evolved.

eleathergroup.com

John Kennedy is the CEO who is leading ELeather into new markets. He embodies and creates a culture at ELeather that is focused on customers, operational excellence and innovation through teamwork. Having been CFO and COO before transitioning to CEO, he brings a global perspective to developing the business having previously had a successful career in large international corporates, such as Applied Materials and Accenture. Since John took over as CEO, ELeather has been certified to the Recycled Claim Standard (RCS) by Control Union Certifications and awarded the Higg certificate by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, partnered with the likes of Wizz Air and Project Blu, and launched its first ever fully metallic material collection.

Building the future of 24/7 smart charging infrastructure.

Elonroad

SECTOR

Transportation & Mobility

REGION

Norway, Sweden

ENTREPRENEUR

Karin Ebbinghaus TITLE CEO

Elonroad is powering the future of mobility by developing an electric road technology designed to charge electric vehicles while they are on the go or parked. They do this by laying a smart conductive rail on top of the road. A conductive pick-up under the vehicle connects to the electric rail at 300kW 97% efficiency. The rail is only active when covered by the vehicle, which makes it safe in a city environment, while also providing feedback loops to Elonroad’s software. Their software control provides built-in load balancing, access control, billing system, and additional safety features. Elonroad has completed a 1km electric road demonstration project in Lund, on behalf of the Swedish Transport Administration that proves their top of the road and submerged road technology.

elonroad.com

Karin Ebbinghaus is the CEO of the innovative company Elonroad, which contributes to the system shift into a more climate-friendly society. Karin has a background as a lawyer and investor, but fell for Elonroad and their inspiring approach to tackling the climate challenge with new thinking and belief in technology. Before joining the Elonroad team, Karin was an Investment Manager at Almi Invest’s GreenTech fund, which solely focused on companies reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Karin also worked as a lawyer for both national and international law firms, as well as in-house counsel at Vestas. Karin has extensive knowledge in M&A, joint ventures, securities and investments. She holds an LLM from Lund University and an Executive MBA from Stockholm School of Economics.

H3 Dynamics

Building a sustainable hydrogen air mobility business.

SECTOR Transportation & Mobility

REGION

France, Japan, Singapore, US

ENTREPRENEUR

Taras Wankewycz

TITLE

H3 Dynamics is a world leader in advanced aerial mobility technologies, including zero-emission, hydrogenelectric propulsion. The company is implementing a sustainable 3-phase roadmap, starting with autonomous data services, moving next to autonomous hydrogen cargo, and passenger flight as a final step. Over time, the company plans to globally scale from small drones to large aircraft platforms, starting with immediate markets first. Right now, H3 offers autonomous aerial data services to building management and construction companies. They plan to scale their business line to several mega-cities around the world. With current and projected revenues generated, H3 intends to invest in the R&D of hydrogen-electric propulsion systems called the Aeropak with a range of 400-900km. Their team in France is preparing for its first in-flight Q1 2022 to demonstrate its propulsion systems.

h3dynamics.com

Taras Wankewycz is the Founder and CEO of H3 Dynamics, an aviation company on a mission to decarbonise air mobility. Taras is a deep tech entrepreneur with 19 years of business building experience across Asia. He turns emerging tech into commercial platforms across a broad range of applications, from enterprise solutions to consumer retail, and from industrial solutions to aerospace. Before founding H3 Dynamics, Taras co-founded Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies, the parent company of Hyzon Motors and a global leader in hydrogen fuel cell technologies; Horizon Educational, a global specialist in clean energy STEM educational products for schools worldwide; HES Energy Systems, an air mobility research lab focused on PEM fuel cell energy storage for long range electric flight; and H3 Zoom.AI, the world’s first cloud-based, AI-enabled infrastructure inspection micro-services marketplace.

Delivering safe sanitation and generating energy from waste.

Loowatt

SECTOR Waste Collection

REGION

Madagascar, Philippines, South Africa, UK

ENTREPRENEUR

TITLE

Founder &

Loowatt has developed a unique waterless toilet and waste-to-value processing system that allows service providers to readily adopt off-grid sanitation infrastructure and link it to value-generating systems. In a world where only 30% of people have access to sewers, Loowatt’s system meets the urgent needs of densely populated areas – from crowded events to rapidly growing cities. Loowatt has proven their technology and product-market fit through building services in the UK and internationally, and worked with utilities in the UK and internationally to optimise nutrient recovery and energy generation from waste. The company is scaling up through B2B hardware sales. At the centre of the Loowatt system is a great toilet experience – a human necessity that they believe is fundamental to meeting the global sanitation needs of today.

Virginia Gardiner is the Founder and CEO of Loowatt, having first developed the technology during her Master’s degree. She leads a multi-talented executive team, and communicates their vision internally and externally. Virginia has also become an expert on sanitation having worked in this field for over 10 years, and been fascinated by toilets and sewers for almost 20. Sanitation is universal for all people, and touches so many aspects of life – relationship to resources, cultures and habits – so it always stays interesting! Prior to starting Loowatt in 2010, she spent 7 years working with awardwinning product and design companies including Dwell Magazine, and wrote for publications including Metropolis and The New York Times. Virginia holds a joint Master’s in Innovation Design Engineering from the Royal College of Arts and Imperial College London, and a BA from Stanford University in Comparative Literature.

Transforming low value wood waste into high value, carbon negative thermoplastics.

Made of Air

SECTOR

Manufacturing Technology

REGION

Germany, Sweden

ENTREPRENEUR

Allison Dring

TITLE

Co-Founder & CEO

madeofair.com

Made of Air (MoA) is a carbon-negative materials company capitalizing on the power of trees, the original carbon capture technology. Trees convert atmospheric CO2 into carbon stored in their trunks, but at the end of a tree’s life, the stored CO2 gets re-released into the atmosphere through decomposition or burning. MoA steps in to ensure that the CO2 stored by these trees is permanently and stably locked in by creating Biochar from wood waste (a negative emissions process). MoA then creates thermoplastic granules that replace polluting materials like fossil plastic and aluminum, intentionally focusing on durable and recoverable applications that have long usage cycles. These thermoplastics can be formed with all traditional thermoforming methods, and used for a wide variety of applications. After decades of use, their materials can be returned to the earth safely, either directly or as Biochar.

Allison Dring is Co-Founder and CEO of Made of Air, an advanced materials company initiating carbon negative strategies for manufacturing. Made of Air was named the Falling Walls’ 2020 Science Start Up Breakthrough of the Year. Allison is an experienced entrepreneur, initiating climate positive technologies and applying them to real world building applications. Previously, as Co-Founder of Elegant Embellishments, she invented and manufactured proslve370e, an award-winning facade module that reduces urban air pollution. She is a veteran speaker on topics involving technology and the environment, including a 2013 TEDx Berlin talk entitled “Ornament & Climate’’, is a member of the BMW Foundation Responsible Leaders, and serves as Advisory Board Member for Creating Urban Tech Berlin and The Lifeboat Foundation.

Accelerating the deployment of low carbon energy across our planet.

Modularity Grid

SECTOR Software as a Service

REGION

France, Uganda, UK

ENTREPRENEUR

TITLE

Founder &

Modularity Grid is a London-based startup specializing in AI technologies that streamlines the operation of minigrids. The team has developed an energy technology platform that combines computational power in the cloud with artificial intelligence to enable mini-grid operators to better track and predict individual energy consumption. Their system connects the various components in a minigrid and collects enormous data in real-time, including how much electricity has been generated and used. Ultimately, with better efficiency and more knowledge, Modularity Grid is making the cost of electricity from renewable mini-grids even cheaper, spreading the adoption and transition towards an electrified world. Modularity Grid has received a £1.5M Innovate UK grant to demonstrate their software on mini-grids and has secured two long-term contracts with dairy farms.

Elizabeth Nyeko is Founder & CEO of Modularity Grid, a cleantech company focused on delivering the next generation of low carbon electrical power systems for terrestrial and aerospace applications. In 2012, while pursuing a PhD in clinical medicine at the University of Oxford, Nyeko set up a biomass-powered mini-grid back in Uganda with her brother Peter and their company, Mandulis Energy. As Nyeko learned at Mandulis Energy, the electricity demand of individual customers is very hard to track, which typically leads to overproduction of power, inefficient use of fuels, and inflated electricity prices. As CEO of Modularity Grid, Nyeko builds technologies that improve the performance of minigrids, small-scale electricity generation and distribution systems that power homes and businesses in areas where extending national grids is too expensive. Eventually, Nyeko believes her solution can also help make national grids more efficient—in Africa and beyond.

Naked Energy

Providing a revolutionary hybrid solar panel that generates both electricity and heat for commercial and industrial applications.

SECTOR Energy Conversion

Naked Energy has developed VirtuPVT, a hybrid solar technology that generates both heat and power resulting in a higher energy density than alternative solar technologies. VirtuPVT can deliver a peak efficiency of 80%, converting 20% of the sun’s energy to electricity and 60% as heat. VirtuHOT is a complementary high temperature thermal only collector. Naked Energy’s patented technology is ideally suited for use on flat roofs in urban environments where space is limited. This includes large commercial users of thermal energy such as hotels, hospitals and apartments, as well as manufacturing processes that need hot water and/or heat, including district heating and cooling.

REGION

Belgium, Greece, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland, UK

ENTREPRENEUR

TITLE

nakedenergy.co.uk

Christophe Williams co-founded Naked Energy in 2011 to address the pressing global demand for efficient and cost effective solar solutions in the built environment. With an award-winning career in creative advertising already under his belt, Christophe has drawn upon his broad and creative skill set, bringing together a collective of pioneering scientists, engineers, designers, and entrepreneurs. He has successfully taken a novel scientific concept and developed it into a proven worldbeating technology that is now being scaled for a global market. Christophe’s passion for the industry, and his belief that profit and sustainability are not mutually exclusive, drive him in his leadership and vision.

Delivering award-winning, reliable, CO2-free last mile delivery.

NÜWIEL

REGION

Austria, Belgium, Germany

ENTREPRENEUR

Natalia Tomiyama

TITLE

Co-Founder & Managing Director

nuwiel.com

NÜWIEL provides innovative solutions for moving goods in urban areas in a sustainable and cost-efficient way. They have developed the world’s first intelligent electric bike trailer for last-mile logistics. Using their patented technology, the trailer can accelerate, decelerate, and brake automatically with the bike, requiring no additional effort from the user. In summary, even though the biker is towing 250kg in weight, the feeling is weightless from the biker, due to the systems reaction speed. The eTrailer can attach to any bike, eBike, or cargo bike, and can be walked by hand in pedestrian-only zones, providing a safe and convenient last-mile delivery solution in urban areas.

Natalia Tomiyama is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of NÜWIEL, an e-trailer business based out of Hamburg. Along with her Co-Founder, Fahad Khan, Natalia sought to solve the many challenges with last-mile delivery in densely populated urban areas. As Managing Director, Natalia oversees finance and business development. Before founding NÜWIEL, Natalia worked as a Project Manager at Startup Dock, the entrepreneurship center at Hamburg University of Technology, and as a Lead Partner and Researcher on the EU-funded project, Higher Education and Enterprises: Knowledge Alliances for the Training of Entrepreneurs (HEKATE). Natalia holds a Master’s in International Production Management from Hamburg University of Technology, an MBA from the Northern Institute of Technology Management, and a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering from St. Petersburg Polytechnic University.

Low-cost energy storage for the world.

VoltStorage

SECTOR

Energy Storage

REGION

Austria, Germany, Switzerland

ENTREPRENEUR

Jakob

Bitner

TITLE

Co-Founder & CEO

VoltStorage is a fast-growing technical pioneer in stationary flow batteries for long duration storage applications, based out of Munich, Germany. VoltStorage develops and produces energy storage systems, based on ecological redox flow technologies since 2016. Thanks to their proven Vanadium Redox Flow technology, as well as their newly developed low-cost Iron Salt battery technology, they can provide cost-effective solutions for ultra-long duration storage demands in the commercial, industrial and grid scale sector. With the expertise of our international R&D team, knowledge in production of this technology and the experience of operating one of the largest fleets of flow batteries in the world, they are striving to achieve their vision: Making renewables available 24/7.

voltstorage.com

Jakob Bitner is CEO and Co-Founder of VoltStorage. Following his vocational training in finance and his studies in business administration, he gained extensive professional experience in the areas of business development and corporate controlling before founding VoltStorage in 2016 with Felix Kiefl and Michael Peither. Within the company, Jakob is responsible for business development, finance and marketing. He deeply believes that the global energy transition is a great opportunity to make the world a cleaner and fairer place. In his spare time, when he is not trying to contribute to the success of the energy transition with novel storage technologies, he is working out in his CrossFit box, snowboarding or hiking in the Alps or reading about new technological developments.