Pioneering Glasgow start-up secures contract with European-biotech specialists to take products commercial

Pioneering Glasgow start-up, Revive Eco, which is using its revolutionary patented technology to create a palm oil alternative that can be used across the global cosmetics, home cleaning, pharmaceutical, and food and drink sectors has secured a commercial contract with France-based SAS Pivert which will see industry-leading chemistry and biotech specialists take the company’s groundbreaking upcycling process to an industrial scale.

The news comes as Revive Eco continues its second crowdfunding round and with just two weeks to go, the team have increased its funding target to £300,000. Launched a week ago, over 90 investors have already joined the investor community in their pledge to combat biodiversity collapse, with £200k raised, so far.

With global corporates and manufacturers under increasing pressure to find alternatives to virgin ingredients derived from the likes of palm and coconut oils and with the natural cosmetics market worth £3.1bn, those interested in being part of Revive Eco’s globally significant journey can invest from as little as £11*, or the price of your weekly coffee habit.

Over 500,000 tonnes of used coffee grounds produced in the UK every year, costing the coffee industry around £80 million per annum in waste removal, Revive Eco extracts high-value, natural chemicals from spent coffee grounds to create a palm oil alternative. Approximately 70 million tonnes of palm oil which is found in many household products, are produced annually, with its production being one of the main drivers of deforestation and carbon emissions globally.

Revive Eco was founded by Fergus Moore and Scott Kennedy in 2015 while doing their undergraduate degrees in Entrepreneurship at the University of Strathclyde and when both working in coffee shops.

Revive Eco Ltd. co-founder, Fergus Moore, said: “We founded Revive Eco on the basis that we wanted to create high value ingredients from waste materials to support a sustainable future. The patented technology developed by our amazing technical team is something that is revolutionary and has scope to positively impact the future of how a host of products from across the beauty, food and drinks industries are made and developed across the world. With the natural cosmetics market growing faster than the rest of the skincare and surfactant markets, there is such potential and scope.

“While the skincare market has made drastic changes in the amount of palm oil it uses, the change is still not nearly enough, and they have increasingly started moving to alternatives like coconut oil which is now having the same devastating impact on rainforests and biodiversity. Coconut plantations actually provide a lower yield than palm, so there is an argument that this is having an even worse environmental impact than palm deforestation has.

“It’s apt that we’re doing the crowdfund as the COP16 Biodiversity conference takes place in Columbia which is calling on action being taken against the silent crisis of biodiversity loss, which is one of the most devastating repercussions of increased palm oil production.

“We are in an extremely exciting moment in the business’ life cycle. To enable to us to continue to drive the company forward we are seeking investors to join our journey so that we can continue work towards our long-term vision of replacing virgin materials such as palm and coconut derivatives for skincare and food and drink applications wherever possible. We hope you can join us.”

Revive Eco’s new contract with SAS Pivert was recently marked at the UK Embassy in Paris which was attended by key representatives from the Scottish Government, Scottish Development International, European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) Food, and SAS Pivert. The new partnership with the European chemistry and biotech specialists will see the teams create coffee oil using surplus coffee from renowned coffee brand, Costa Coffee.

Revive Eco co-founder, Scott Kennedy, said: “Our team has worked incredibly hard over the last couple of years to develop a scalable and sustainable process that can deliver the impact we are aiming for. In the last 12 months, we have gained a deeper understanding of the market in which we want to operate in and we know that ingredient manufacturers are constantly looking for new processes and ingredients to produce to differentiate themselves from their competitors. By outsourcing the manufacturing of our ingredients to toll manufacturers rather than manufacturing them internally, we slot into an existing chain of manufacturing, distribution and sales.

“With further investors, we can continue to take our product to scale. Working with SAS Pivert on our latest pilot is truly a huge step towards our mission of creating something worthwhile and sustainable out of waste that would otherwise be forgotten about.

“We have had so much support from Scotland, the UK and in Europe to take the business to where it is right now, and we thank everyone who has invested so far.”

Revive Eco has also carried out a number of trials with big brands in the UK and across Europe and attended the In-cosmetics Global in Paris earlier this year to showcase newly developed ingredients, including their coffee oil and surfactant. Surfactants are projected to see largest market share growth within cosmetics ingredients market and by 2027, the market is expected to be worth £16.8bn.

To find out more about investing or to invest: https://www.crowdcube.com/companies/revive-eco-ltd