Edinburgh company win £100,000 of funding from Scottish EDGE

Scottish EDGE, the UK’s largest business funding competition, has awarded £100,000 to Edinburgh company S’wheat, the world’s first reusable bottle made from plant-based materials.

S’wheat founders, Jake Elliott-Hook and Amee Ritchie, won the Net Zero category award for their social enterprise to allow them to keep up with the ever-growing demand for their products.

The company makes reusable water bottles from discarded wheat stalks and bamboo. This process eliminates the need for new, unnatural materials and means that more carbon is offset than produced in the creation of their renewable bottles and also with the help of an environmental tree-planting project.

S’wheat is the only reusable bottle that plants trackable native trees with each bottle sold, allowing consumers to view where in the world their tree has been planted.

Co-founder Jake said: “Winning this funding is key to allow us to expand the business so that we can fulfil our current demand, plant more trees, and help companies offset more carbon through our bespoke co-branding offerings”

Amee said: “We are ecstatic about winning this award. To be recognised for something we’ve worked so hard to achieve feels amazing and we can’t thank Scottish EDGE enough for their continued support in our mission.

“We really appreciate all the support we have received from everyone and we’re so excited to be able to grow the business more.”

S’wheat frequently works with larger companies who wish to introduce sustainability into their business operations by offsetting their carbon footprint and minimising plastic waste. They began offering business to business sales in 2020 and there was a 300% increase in profit from this move alone. S’wheat has now worked with a number of these companies including Aston Martin, Google, Meta, and many more. The funding received from this award means that they can successfully assist large companies in their net zero goals and become known as the number one supplier of sustainable bottles.

The company’s next step is to launch all-new reusable products made from the same materials, bamboo and wheat. Thanks to the Scottish EDGE funding, S’wheat can now work to fill the gap in the market for sustainable reusable products that genuinely give back to the earth.

The duo previously won the Young EDGE award for their sustainable business in 2019. This year, Scottish EDGE has chosen to award S’wheat with the top prize. Scottish EDGE has now awarded more than £20 million to businesses in Scotland which show distinct business innovation but require more funding to fill the demand for their products or services.