New Green Award for UK low-carbon startups by James Caan, CEO, Hamilton Bradshaw Impact Partners on 17-Jul-2012

Launched earlier this year, the Berti Green Accelerator is an innovative programme that will annually award three successful low carbon businesses with six-months of first class business support and access to multi million pound funding. Three outstanding businesses have been selected as winners of the first awards.

This years winning businesses include Breathing Buildings, who have developed natural ventilation products for commercial buildings, Firefly Solar, a manufacturer of portable solar generators, and Valueform, who provide green alternatives to plastic food packaging.

Each of the winners will now receive up to six months of first class business support and expertise from Hamilton Bradshaw Impact Partners and up to £1 million of investment from Berti Investments to help their business sustainably grow.

Over 80 businesses applied for the programme. The final stage in the four month process for the final six applicants was a dragons’ den style pitch to a panel of judges including James Caan, former dragon and founder of Hamilton Bradshaw, Jeremy Leggett, founder and chairman of Solarcentury, Michael Liebreich, founder and chief executive of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, and Jacques Tredoux, Director of Berti Investments.

The three winners of the 2012 Berti Green Accelerator are:

Breathing Buildings: is a Cambridge-based company which replaces mechanical ventilation systems with patented energy-efficient natural ventilation products, which can reduce the energy demands of large buildings by up to 40%.

"The passion and drive of the team was infectious and I was really impressed by their knowledge of the market, their product and their pricing" – James Caan.

"Breathing Buildings has a simple, patented solution to provide natural ventilation in buildings, saving money and improving ventilation. As a thermodynamics guy, how could I not like it?" Michael Liebreich.

Firefly Solar: a Brighton-based company which designs and manufactures off-grid, portable and permanent solar-powered generators, providing power for everything from UK events to remote military operations in Afghanistan.

"The judges were unanimous in their selection of Firefly. Andy was exceptional and pitched very well. His ability to respond to the intense questioning of the panel was right on point and I have every confidence that through the Accelerator, Andy will lead Firefly to greater heights" James Caan.

"Firefly have been going a few years, they have a range of standardised solutions at various power outputs. They are down-to-earth guys: they have been in the trenches, and they know what works. Winning the accelerator will help them scale up their processes and grow their market place" Michael Liebreich.

Valueform: a company which has developed a green technology which uses straw to create biodegradable pizza bases; the first of many products in its quest to do away with plastic packaging.

"Valueform presented a really interesting proposition. The team are extremely bright and I’m excited to see how they grow through the programme" James Caan.

"Valueform is an interesting early stage proposition: they have solved the problem of replacing plastic supermarket punnets with ones incorporating straw, using conventional packaging machines. The team is super-passionate about their vision and very impressive" Michael Liebreich.

Commenting on the success of the first year, Seth Tabatznik of Berti Investments said, "This is the first year of the programme and we have been overwhelmed by the quantity and quality of the applicants. Our winning three are truly inspirational businesses and we are excited to be working with them."

"We established this programme to help support and grow the UK's cleantech sector through a new approach, providing intelligent capital, which combines business support and funding. Our first year has proved there is a real demand for this tailored support and the Berti Green Accelerator will be back in 2013. We look forward to reporting on the success of our 2012 winners and subsequently meeting more inspirational entrepreneurs in the future."

To follow the progress of the winners or for news about next year’s Berti Green Accelerator programme log onto bertiinvestments.com or follow us on twitter: @BertiUK

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