First published: Wednesday, 14 October 2015
In 2014, a group of Imperial students made the finals of the Mayor’s Low Carbon Entrepreneur competition. Now they’re hoping to raise at least £500,000 to crowdfund their idea. We spoke to them to find out more..
Why did you enter the Mayor’s Low Carbon Entrepreneur and what was your idea?
We were working on creating the world’s first modular smartwatch before the competition. Our aim is to be more than just another new gadget on the market. By entering the Mayor’s Low Carbon Entrepreneur, we learned about the need to create products that are environmentally sustainable. This gave us a chance to refine our business model. BLOCKS limits carbon emissions because it doesn’t have to be replaced regularly with newer versions as technology improves. By upgrading specific modules, or ‘blocks’ instead, it’s less carbon intensive to produce compared to making an entire new smartwatch. This also reduces landfill waste and limits land toxicity and acidification levels.
We entered the competition as we wanted toto have a positive impact on the city we’re so proud to be a part of. It’s also a great chance to join the low carbon movement. We wanted to try and change the approach to the design of electronics to make them more sustainable.
What did you get out of being involved?
It really helped cement our thoughts on how we’d make BLOCKS the most sustainable wearable product on the market. Constructive feedback from the competition’s panel of judges has helped us turn our idea into a fully-fledged business. We were able to refine the sustainable part of our proposition giving us an advantage over our market competitors.
Have you continued developing your business?
We’ve come a long way since last year. We’ve now launched a crowdfunding campaign. Our target is to raise at least £500,000 in funds. We’re confident we can become one of the most successful London-based crowdfunding campaigns with the right support.
Register your interest in Low Carbon Entrepreneur 2016
Find out more about BLOCKS