Southampton student’s carbon-negative beer from bread secures Dragon investment
Student engineer Dimitris-Marios Stoidis clinched a £20,000 investment offer in a startup that turns leftover supermarket bread into beer in a Dragons’ Den-style event at the University of Southampton.
The MEng Aeronautics and Astronautics student is the founder of Future Brew , a sustainable beer brand with a vision to offset over one million kilograms of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by 2022.
Dimitris pitched in the virtual series hosted by the Future Worlds startup accelerator to secure the offer from Dragon investors Chris Broad and Andrew Doe at a pre-money valuation of £200,000.
Future Brew has already supplied beer to the University’s student bar and launched a new canned pale ale in September called Dough Dough .
The climate and community-minded start-up redistributes and reuses food that would otherwise go to waste, taking surplus ingredients to homeless shelters and community shops. Through this redistribution, and by offsetting carbon, they are producing carbon-negative beer.
“I am so excited for the future and the amazing things that we can achieve together with the Dragons,” Dimitris says. “I am proud of everything that we have achieved so far, from providing ingredients for 8,500 meals to the most in need during the lockdown to having saved over 11.5 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere. This investment will help us upscale our production, access big retailers and supermarkets and increase our impact across Southampton and the UK in the future.”
The Future Worlds Dragons’ Den series also saw investment offers for two other student startups that brought the combined total valuation across the four-day event to more than £1.1 million.
Computer Science PhD student Iris Kramer was offered a £70,000 investment in her startup, ArchAI, a deep learning tool for archaeological surveys. Southampton Law graduate Avila Chidume raised £15,000 for her business Kutenda, an online marketplace that celebrates the representation of underrepresented groups.
Other startups pitched across the series included Angel, a one-person fully electric multicopter for first responders designed by MEng Aeronautics and Astronautics students Umar Khan and Radu Tudorache, Stardust, a personal data protection platform founded by Computer Science and Mathematics students Til Jordan and Andrius Matšenas, and Small Steps, a subscription service founded by Psychology student Sally Goillon that curates sustainable alternatives to everyday products.
Ben Clark , Future Worlds Director, says: “Future Worlds Dragons’ Den 2020 has seen immensely talented founders meet committed and supportive multi-millionaire investors to launch audacious startup adventures. I’m inspired by how the ambitious students have battled through this year’s challenging process in lockdown to seize life changing opportunities and reach for international success.
“Moving online in lockdown has brought together angel investors from across Europe and North America to invest in the exceptional startups emerging from the University of Southampton. With over £600,000 now offered to student entrepreneurs in Future Worlds Dragons’ Den the University’s infectious startup culture is making waves on the South coast.”
All four episodes of Future Worlds’ Dragons Den are available to view for free online at futureworlds.com/dragons .