Changing the scene with sustainable sanitary products made from agro-food industry waste.  

Last evening marked the “grand finale” of this year’s Sting Test Drive Sustaintech where 13 early-stage startup teams within the energy and climate space pitched their ideas to a jury and “Best Sustaintech Pitch” was selected.  

The winner was SaniSOLE, with the jury’s motivation reading:  

“In addition to delivering a great pitch with a lot of passion, SaniSOLE impressed with their circular approach, turning industry waste into biopolymers, offering a much needed sustainable and bio-degradable alternative to today’s single-use disposable sanitary products.” 

SaniSOLE’s technology is the result of 5+ years of research at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, focusing on developing biopolymers with functionality towards sustainable solutions. Instead of using virgin and fossil-based raw materials, biopolymers made from agro-food waste are used, offering a natural biobased material that is biodegradable and harmless to the environment.  

The jury also selected two runner-ups, Cellfion and Cresponix, sharing second place. 

“The Sting Test Drive Sustaintech 2022 program has been the floor for many positive feelings and encouraging reflections. We were provided with the essential tools that every early business idea needs and served as a driving force to understand that the time to contribute to a better future is here and now. From our side, and I am surely speaking from all the great ideas presented this year, the program allowed us to answer several questions we had, and now as a team, we feel more prepared to take the next step.” says Antonio Capeza, CEO and Founder of SaniSOLE.   

“It is extremely rewarding to work with all these super-talented early-stage startup founders passionately and tirelessly working to bring new ideas and solutions to help solve the energy and climate challenges our world is facing. In this batch we see an impressive mix of innovations in key areas such as sustainable energy, food and agriculture, green transports, circularity and reduced waste.” says Karin Ruiz, program leader, business coach and Deputy CEO at Sting.  

Jury: 

Karin Edström: Investment Manager, Almi Invest Greentech 

Raoul Stubbe: Business Coach Deeptech, Sting 

Katarina Chowra: Business Development Coach Sustainability, KTH Innovation 

About Sting Test Drive Sustaintech 

Sting Test Drive Sustaintech is a practical training program created for teams with an early-stage startup idea based on a pioneering Sustaintech innovation or solution. Since the beginning of the year, 13 Sustaintech startups have tested and developed their ideas through a series of workshops with Sting’s coaches.  

Sting’s Test Drive program mixes theory with practice, helping the startups validate their ideas and working closely with the entrepreneurs with challenges startups often meet. The program ends with a Grand Finale where the participants pitch their ideas in front of a jury and a winner is selected. Many startups that later join Sting’s Incubate and Accelerate programs started off in the Test Drive program.  

This Sting Test Drive Sustaintech program is arranged as part of Sustainable Energy Action, a joint initiative by Sting, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, KTH Innovation, KTH Holding, THINGS and Ignite Sweden, with funding from the Swedish Energy Agency. 

Interested in the Sustainable Energy Action initiative? Follow us on our LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/sustainable-energy-action 

Do you want to know more about Sting’s offer for Sustaintech startups? Read more here https://sting.co/sustaintech 

What is Sustaintech?  

When we talk about Sustaintech, we mean innovations in areas like renewables, energy, climate tech, circular economy, cleantech, green transport, bioeconomy, food and agrotech, waste and water, sustainable materials, sustainable fashion, and more, with a clear positive environmental impact. 

2022 Sting Test Drive Sustaintech participants  

Cellfion – Develops and manufactures bio-based materials for clean energy devices. 

Cresponix – A new proprietary technology, which enables sustainable farming of giant shrimp in Sweden. 

ElvfTech – Small-scale 3D printed heat exchanger for generating electricity from waster heat. 

EnergiNode – The blockchain way of real-time energy tracking and management. 

KOASTAL – Providing ready-to-use sea farms for locals to cultivate and share profit between two parties. 

Redare – Empowering food retailers with product sustainability data. 

Refillistic – Convenient and sustainable consumption by refilling FMCGs with unmanned refilling robots in common areas. 

SaniSOLE – We want to provide you with a choice of disposable and biodegradable sanitary pads designed from environmentally friendly biopolymers so that you can save the world with us, one pad at a time.  

SAVE | THE | DATE – Connected clothes to spread a challenge and reward sustainable action. 

Sovlinjen – Comfortable overnight commuting for the business traveler. 

Sprout – Support and learn from communities fighting for a sustainable future. 

TINT – Replacing single-use food and drink packaging to smart sustainable reusable packaging-as-a-service. Takeaway should be tasty and waste-free. 

Typographus – Early detection of bark beetle outbreaks in boreal forests, based on UAV air-monitoring platform.