Green tech start-up Hydro Co crowed Accenture’s Leaders of Tomorrow
Hydro Co. was the crowed the 2019 winner of Accenture’s Leaders of Tomorrow competition. The green tech start-up aims to make reusable coffee cup cleaning both convenient and profitable for businesses.
The company took the award at the final showcase at Accenture’s R&D and Global Innovation Centre with its five-second cleaning solution that uses steam to clean reusable cups, making it one of the most sanitising and convenient solutions on the market.
According to the company, its technology lowers cleaning costs, is sustainable, makes reusable cups more attractive to use, and saves the 13 litres of water used in a standard dishwasher.
The Hydro Co. team will receive €10,000 in seed-funding from Accenture, a stand at Dublin Tech Summit and workspace at WeWork Labs for one month.
Now in its 12th year, the Leaders of Tomorrow programme fosters entrepreneurship in third-level students and recent graduates. It helps young entrepreneurs to transform innovative, early-stage ideas into start-ups.
This year, 120 successful applicants took part in a two-day team forming and ideation event. The five strongest teams moved on to the Summer Accelerator programme, where they participated in workshops. The teams then pitched their ideas at the final showcase for a panel of judges.
“It’s incredible to see the growth of the programme over the years,” said Graham Healy, executive sponsor, Leaders of Tomorrow. “We have gone from about 30 applicants in year one to a record of over 500 this year.”
“We saw some outstanding ideas including an eco-conscious start-up creating a tablet-refilled deodorant, to a property-tech start-up providing personalised accommodation search which utilises artificial intelligence.
“This year’s winner, The Hydro Co., is a profit with a purpose company who is determined to promote the use of reusable coffee cups to improve the carbon footprint of businesses and individuals through their unique steam cleaning technology.”
Members of the winning team are Meg Brennan, David Furlong, Daniel Izquierdo Hijazi, Sophie O’Rourke and Harry Shanahan.
Previous winners include Ailbhe and Izzy Keane. The sisters company Izzy Wheels makes stylish, water-proof and durable wheelchair covers. Just this week, it teamed up with Barbie to create limited-edition wheel covers inspired by the iconic doll.
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