Meet the nominees for the Small Cap Award’s 2021 ESG of the year
The Small Cap Awards 2021 will be held in-person event on 11 November at London’s Montcalm Hotel. Hosted by Perrier Award winning comedian Dominic Holland, the show will highlight the best in UK small cap business over the last year.
You can find out more about the event on the Small Cap Network website.
Here are some of the nominees for ESG of the year:
Invinity Energy Systems
Invinity Energy Systems builds utility-grade energy storage for grid-scale and large commercial and industrial applications. We are a leading player in the design and manufacture of Vanadium Flow Batteries (VFB)s, a safe, economical and proven storage technology that can operate continuously in the field for over 25 years. Invinity stands out as being the first company to modularize a factory produced VFB; most flow batteries to date have been built as bespoke engineering projects akin to building a small chemical plant.
Invinity is a global company; with main locations in London, Bathgate, Vancouver, San Francisco and Suzhou and a deployed fleet at over 50 projects in 14 countries.
Energy storage advances such as our flow batteries hold the key to further progress in our global energy transition. By installing VFBs alongside renewables, excess power produced at times when it is not needed can be stored for use at times when it is, making low-cost, renewable energy available truly on-demand for the first time.
Playing a substantial role in the energy transition is core to our mission and culture and also underlies the key factor in our successful growth: our highly motivated team. Their passion for having a positive environmental impact, dedication, innovation and resilience have driven us through times of unique global challenges. Our team has decades of experience in energy finance, engineering, business development, and research. This collective expertise sets Invinity apart from others in the energy storage space and has allowed us to not only succeed but thrive in an unprecedented business environment.
Invinity was created in some of the most uncertain times many have ever known, the result of a merger between redT Energy and Avalon Battery which closed in early 2020 against the backdrop of the first days of the COVID pandemic. As the world shifted to remote working from home, Invinity used this momentum to fine-tune its internal communications across different countries and time zones. Our team embraced the challenges presented as a push towards improving their work and communications efficiency and prevailed in the face of adversity. As such, Invinity has enjoyed record-breaking corporate growth and commercial success.
The last 12 months have seen us dramatically scale up our staff and our manufacturing capacity to address the incredible growth in global demand for vanadium flow batteries. We have developed and brought to market our first Invinity-branded battery, the VS3-022 which is now being deployed to clients such as Energy Superhub Oxford and Scottish Water. 2021 also saw us announce a strategic joint development and commercialisation agreement with Gamesa Electric, providing us further global reach, capacity, and know-how.
Symphony Environmental
Established in 1995, Symphony Environmental is a world leader in the development and marketing of scientifically proven technological solutions to improve and enhance plastic products Our North London office is home to our team of scientists, technicians and account managers who have vast experience in the industry and close relationships with research institutes, universities, and test centres around the world. We also have a global network of distributors which allows us to have a presence in nearly 100 countries worldwide. We are masterbatch and additive specialists and design our products to be safe, affordable and effective in tackling environmental and health issues by making plastic smarter. Our leading brand d2w® is found on thousands of tons of plastic bags and single use items all over the world. This technology turns ordinary plastic, at the end of its service-life into a biodegradable material which can be used as a food source by bacteria and fungi in the same way as natures wastes. It was developed to tackle the problem of the plastic packaging which escapes collection or recycling and ends up in the open environment as litter. In Addition to this we have developed a range of additives, concentrates and masterbatches marketed under the d2p (designed to protect) logo, which can be incorporated in a wide variety of plastic and non-plastic products to give them protection against bacteria, viruses, fungi, algae, moulds, insects, fouling and fire. Symphony were very proud to be awarded the Green Economy Mark in October 2019, in recognition of the fact that we derive more than 50% of our revenue from environmental solutions. The last eighteen months have been a challenge to many businesses, despite this 2021 got off to a very good start with the successful conclusion of the 5-year Oxomar study, sponsored by the French Agence National de Recherche on the performance of our d2w oxo-biodegradable plastic technology in the oceans. The report confirmed the findings of the scientists in their September 2020 interim report that “Oxo-biodegradable plastics biodegrade in seawater, and added to earlier studies completed by Queen Mary University London, and Station d’essais de Vieillissement naturel de Bandol, who applied different scientific techniques to prove that d2w plastics biodegrade in the marine environment, without leaving toxic residues New and enhanced FDA approval in July for our antimicrobial food packaging and approval in Canada for our masterbatch for bread packaging has expanded opportunities in the US and will allow a current project in Canada to proceed more quickly. The agreement with Meditech in August covering distribution, manufacturing, marketing and corporate investment, will help us to expand sales of d2w and d2p in China and Globally. Finally, we have filed several patents this year in recognition of our increased product range, and the need to protect our IP, and we have expanded our sales team with the appointment of a new Sales Manager and a new Head of Innovation, which leaves us in a good position to capitalize on our investments going forward.
TPX Impact
TPXimpact exists to transform the organisations, services and systems that underpin society and that drive business success. It applies strategic and creative thinking, technology, innovative design and user-centred approaches to bring about numerous improvements which together multiply the impact of change. The Company works closely with its clients in agile, multidisciplinary teams that span organisational design, technology, and digital experiences. It shares a deep understanding of people and behaviours and a philosophy of putting people and communities at the heart of every transformation.
The business is being increasingly recognised as a leading alternative digital transformation provider to the UK public services sector, with c.70% of its client base representing the public sector and c.30% representing the commercial sector.
More information is available at www.tpximpact.com
Ilika
Ilika plc (LON: IKA) is a pioneer in solid state battery technology with their innovative Stereax micro batteries designed for Industrial IoT and MedTech markets, and their Goliath large format batteries for the electric vehicle and consumer electronics markets. Ilika works closely with its ecosystem of partners to provide them with customisable Stereax micro batteries that provide the specific power requirements their IoT or MedTech application requires. Stereax battery technology offers compelling advantages over conventional lithium ion batteries, including smaller footprint, high energy density, non-toxic materials, faster charging, increased cycle life, low leakage and reduced flammability. Stereax solid state batteries are also customisable in shape and form, stackable and operational at high temperatures. Goliath is Ilika’s large format Wh-level technology being developed for electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and also consumer electronics. Working with partners within its ecosystem, Ilika is building a consortium of global expertise with its Goliath Lead Partnership program. Find more about Ilika and their innovative solid state battery technology at www.ilika.com
Water Intelligence
Water Intelligence plc is a fast growing, leading multinational provider of precision, minimally-invasive leak detection and remediation solutions for both potable and non-potable water. Since 2016, the Group has achieved CAGRs for revenue and profits growth of 33% and 53% respectively. In 2020, the Group reported revenues of $37.9 million, but as the franchise owner of American Leak Detection, the only nationwide leak detection company in the US, the Group delivered third party sales of in excess of $130 million. This number is growing and through the first 9 months of 2021, sales to third parties had increased 15% year over year.
The Group benefits from both organic and acquisition-led growth drivers. Organically, the Group is able to take advantage of the fact that 40% of water is lost to leakage globally and this is worsening due to aging infrastructure. Water Intelligence helps to solve this problem through its technology-led service offering for residential, commercial and municipal customers. During 2020 and 2021, the business has been deemed an “essential service provider”, enabling it to continue trading at all times. This reinforces the acyclicality of the business. When combined with the damage from water leaks (estimated to cost insurers $12 billion a year in the US alone – the Group’s largest market), the opportunity for structural growth in its current markets over a substantial time horizon remains strong. To tap into this market more aggressively, the Group has served insurance companies through nationwide contracts to supply leak detection and repair services since 2016. As the only such provider of scale and with Salesforce processes and security in place, this provides a strong competitive advantage for the Group.
In addition to organic growth, the Group has been strategically re-acquiring franchise territories to both deliver accretion for shareholders and reinvestment to grow the Group’s total third party sales even faster than has been achieved to date. In 2021, the Group has also made two small, but highly accretive bolt-on acquisitions; one in the US and one in the UK and has raised $10 million from investors to accelerate its growth strategy.
Given the large market, industry dynamics and expected tailwinds from President Biden’s infrastructure plan, with more than $100 billion being committed to water infrastructure issues, the Group remains highly confident in both the shorter and longer term growth opportunities.
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