Jiva Confirmed as Finalist in Postcode Lotteries Green Challenge
Jiva has now officially been announced by the Postcode Lotteries as one of six finalists in the Green Challenge 2020.
The Postcode Lotteries Green Challenge encourages green start‐ups to pitch their creative and innovative business plans for products and services that contribute to a more sustainable planet.
Jack Herring, the Jiva CEO, has been invited to pitch to the competition jury in Amsterdam on 30th September (health and travel regulation permitting). Since applying in March, Jiva has successfully overcome the first three stages of the competition after being selected for the finals by the British preliminary jury.
At the finals, Jiva will be pitching to an international chaired by Boudewijn Poelmann, founder of Dutch social enterprise Novamedia. The jury also consists of: Nina Jensen, CEO of REV Ocean; Jurriaan Ruys, CEO of Land Life Company; Margriet Schreuders, Head of Charity at the Dutch Charity Lotteries and Isabella Gornall, Managing Director of Seahorse Environmental Communications.
Jiva is one of two British SMEs that has reached the finals of the competition, the other being SoluBlue – a company producing hyper-biodegradable, natural biopolymers and composite materials as alternatives to single-use plastics.
Jiva will also be joined by four other innovative companies from across Europe in the finals: Orbisk, Made of Air, Enjay Systems and N2 Applied.
The Postcode Lotteries Green Challenge is one of the largest annual competitions for sustainable entrepreneurship across Great Britain, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
The competition winner in 2019 was Swedish Algae Factory, a company that is focused on commercialising algae to amplify light absorption of solar panels and increase moisturising and cleansing properties in natural personal care products.
The 2020 winner will receive a prize of €500,000 to further develop their service or product and bring it to market within the next two years. The runner-up will receive €200,000 with the other four finalists receiving €100,000. If Jiva were to win the competition, they would receive six months of expert coaching to secure a route-to-market for Soluboard®.
If Jiva is able to secure the first-place prize, the company will use the funds to upscale their research and development facility to accelerate the commercialisation and regulatory testing of Soluboard® – the world’s first fully recyclable printed circuit board substrate.