The company is just coming out of stealth mode and on 14 August won the prestigious Venture Competition, organised by the Climate-KIC UK , the EU’s main climate innovation initiative.
Reduse is now accelerating its development. They have recently recruited a Chief Technology Officer and are commencing fundraising for a Seed Round.
Reduse is an early-stage start-up, coming out of the University of Cambridge, where Chief Scientist Dr David Leal invented a technology to remove print from paper during his PhD research under the supervision of Dr Julian Allwood in the Low Carbon Materials Processing Group at the Engineering Department. Using lasers, the company is able to remove print from laser-printed paper, a process that can be repeated several times without damaging the fibres of the paper.
An average office employee uses 10,000 sheets of paper every year, most of which are discarded within just a few days. This has enormous environmental implications. Unprinting is disruptive but fits brilliantly into any office environment. It requires little or no change in how people work, is easy to implement, and delivers stunning cost savings and CO2 reductions.
Reduse was shortlisted by the EU’s main climate innovation initiative, Climate-KIC (Knowledge & Innovation Community) as a finalist in their annual UK Venture Competition. This follows the company’s participation in the Climate-KIC Accelerator Programme, which provides up to €95,000 start-up funding to the most promising low carbon start-ups in Europe. The competition was held at the Royal College of Music in London on Thursday 14 August 2014. Nine finalists competed for the price with five-minute pitches, followed by Q&A with a panel of judges. Hidde-Jan Lemstra, CEO of Reduse, won the competition and was awarded one of two prizes of €20,000.
This win follows a period of intense activity, during which the company recruited Tony Dunn as its Chief Technology Officer, after receiving close to 100 applications from all around the world. Tony has over twenty years’ experience with product design and development, and will lead the technical development of the Unprinter.
The company has just started raising its first round of funding, and are looking to complement the Climate-KIC support and a £224,000 grant from the Technology Strategy Board.
“We are of course delighted to have won this competition. This is more proof that we are on the right track to solving the incredible waste that is being generated by printing. We have exciting technology and a world-class team. Watch this space!”
Hidde-Jan Lemstra, CEO of Reduse.
“The challenges of tacking climate change are growing year by year, and Climate-KIC is doing a great job in getting the word out. Reduse has an extraordinary opportunity to tackle a big unsolved problem in the space.” Stuart Evans, Non-Executive Chairman of Reduse.
“Hidde-Jan gave a great presentation at this year’s Venture Competition, doing Reduse’s innovative technology justice on stage in front of a jury of influential investors. Their win was thoroughly deserved and I have every confidence that Reduse will go from strength to strength as a venture going forward.” Andrew Burford, UK Entrepreneurship Lead, Climate-KIC UK
“I’m really delighted that Reduse were selected as co-winners in our UK Venture Competition. The other competitors were exceptionally strong but Reduse stood out with their vision and creativity”. Professor Richard Templer, Director, Climate-KIC UK.