2019 saw three winners of the Alumni Innovation Award. Parimala Shivaprasad, founder of Retra, originally won the award in the 2018 cohort but due to being offered an international placement during her PhD year, Parimala decided to extend her bursary period and join the 2019 cohort to ensure she could really focus on developing Retra. Despite submitting her PhD and researching abroad, Parimala kept us in the loop throughout the year and will continue to do so for 2019-20. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to read from the beginning of the journey.

About Retra

Floral waste management in India needs immediate attention as it is causing land and water pollution due to the poor handling and disposal. One of the solution is to upcycle the floral waste by extracting essential oils and composting the used biomass for manure, which is the main objective of Retra.

Retra is a sustainable essential oil range derived flowers that are no longer used and discarded. It has evolved from being just an idea to a pilot phase stage, thanks to the various enterprise activities and support provided by SETsquared Bath.

#15 June 2020

Hope all of you are staying safe even as things are looking up slightly for the first time!

I have now submitted the Innovate UK ICURe follow-on funding application and keeping all fingers crossed! I am now preparing for the NextGen Investor showcase event as a part of the ICURe program which will take place on the 1st and 2nd of July. This is my first ever online pitching event and I am very excited about it. A big thanks to the SETsquared team who are working very hard to get it all set-up and for the training we’ve got ahead of the actual event. This is a fantastic opportunity to network with investors and business advisors interested in science based spin-outs and it aligns with the long terms plan for Retra to be established as a bio-refinery.

I have established links with STL Tech who will provide support with building prototypes going forward and they are a virtual member of UnitDX in Bristol to connect with science based spin-outs and business advisors.

I am currently taking part in the SETSquared Entrepreneur’s program to reflect and re-iterate the business model. I was unsuccessful in making it to the final stage of Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise fellowship earlier this year. But I got some very encouraging feedback from the assessors who liked the idea and the project but suggested there was scope for a more clear business plan and have recommended me to apply for the next round in July.

July will be an exciting month as I am launching Retra’s website and will also have the outcome from my grant application.

Stay tuned!

#14 May 2020

Hope all of you are staying safe and keeping well in these uncertain times.

May was busier than expected as I was constantly working on the Innovate UK ICURe follow-on funding grant application ahead of the June deadline. I was able to get some valuable feedback for the grant application from academics at the University of Bath who are also assessors for Innovate UK funding calls and the grant writer in residence at SETsquared Bath. While I am getting better at writing business support grants, I do sometimes tend to treat it like a research proposal and this was a good exercise to improve my writing skills for future funding calls.

The lockdown continues in India but it is easing every day and we are hoping the operations can be resumed soon.

Until the next post!

#13 March & April 2020

A lot has changed since the last time I updated my blog. First of all, wherever you are I hope you are well and staying safe.

The last couple of months have been relatively normal on the work front for me. The deadline for the Innovate UK ICURe grant was extended by a month due to the COVID-19 pandemic which means I get more time to polish my application with more feedback from the business advisors.

The pandemic gave me a valuable insight towards risk assessment and I have started working on a mitigation plan for Retra. Having focused on only the commercial and technical risks, I hadn’t factored in the effect on the supply chain of waste flowers. Bangalore (where the pilot plant is currently situated in a temple) is currently under lockdown since March and this included places of worship and flower markets.

We are a small team at the present and hence the disruption is minimal. The last couple of months have also given me a chance to complete a few online courses and also learn a value chain modelling software. This can help me with installing essential oil extraction plans while optimising resources available for their operation during the scale-up phase.

Looking ahead, I am focusing on utilising the extra time I have for the grant applications effectively and plan to resume operations on the pilot scale plant post lockdown.

Stay Safe!

#12 February 2020

Hello from Bath and hope 2020 has been good so far! It has been a good February and the month started on a positive note. I got through to the stage-2 of ICURe to apply for an Innovate UK grant ring fenced for the ICURe cohort. This is a fantastic opportunity and I have started working on the application. As any other grant, it is still competitive and I am getting help from business mentors at SETSquared Bath. I am in the process of also applying for the Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellowship again this year, having got feedback from my last year’s application which was not successful.

I was invited to share my entrepreneurial experience with other post-graduate researchers at the University of Bath as a part of the Doctoral Skills Workshop. It was a great experience to interact with other researchers who were keen on starting their entrepreneurial journey. I am also happy to see the university take active steps to promote entrepreneurship among researchers, an initiative I started back when I was doing a PhD.

Sharing my entrepreneurial journey with post graduate researchers at University of Bath

I have also been invited to speak at the launch event for Enterprising Research at Bath, an initiative by a group of post-graduate researchers at University of Bath to promote Research Commercialisation as a pathway to impact. I will be sharing the stage with Prof Jonathan Knight (Pro VC Research), RIS members and academics involved in research commercialisation. I am equally excited about this initiative as I believe there is a need to make support more accessible for researchers interested in commercialisation and also change in measuring research impact. I have also been invited to deliver a 2 hour lecture to MSc students in Chemical Engineering at UofBath about business development and commercialising new technologies in chemical engineering, drawn from my ICURe experience. I am looking forward to this as this is my first formal lecture. Until the next post!

#11 January 2020

A very happy New Year 2020! Hope you’ve all had a restful holiday and a great start to this year.

Since the last post, I wrapped up my meetings in India and took a week off at home before heading back to the UK for the last part of the ICURe journey. I also got the opportunity to take a quick trip to New Zealand for the last of my customer discovery meetings. I visited Scion in Rotorua, to discuss biopolymer production from flower waste, as they are currently researching the use of agriculture biomass as a starting material for commercially important biomass. My presentation was well received and I am looking forward to collaborating with them in the future.

The stage 1 of ICURe program ended with a pitch at the Institute of Directors in London. The panel was impressed by my pitch and I got some very useful feedback along with an invitation to apply for the InnovateUK open call funding, which is ring fenced for the ICURe cohort. The last three months has been an intense but a very insightful journey about the potential markets around the world. A big thank you to InnovateUK and SETSquared ICURe team for giving me the opportunity to be a part of the ICURe journey and supporting me at every step of my customer discovery.

I had a DVT scare as soon as I got back from New Zealand (I meant it when I said intense!) and I am now easing back into my routine. While I recover, I am in the process of applying for the University’s Impact Acceleration Account grant to build on the industry partnerships. It is an extremely competitive scheme so fingers crossed!

I’ll leave you with this view from the Matiu Island in New Zealand, home to some rare flora and fauna in the region.

#10 December 2019

Hello again from India!

It has been an intense few weeks since the last post as I have been on the road for the last two weeks as a part of my customer discovery journey. It has been a great learning curve, providing ample networking opportunities. I attended a unique partnering conference, BioFIT in Marseille, which was an opportunity for researchers to connect one-on-one with chemical and biotech industries. I connected mainly with pharmaceutical companies who were interested in using flower waste feedstock as starting materials for manufacturing active pharmaceutical ingredients. I also got to listen to panel discussions involving industry experts about the needs of the industry and collaborations with universities and support for start-ups. The conference also provides opportunities for upcoming start-ups to pitch for investment, although I missed the deadline this year, but it’s something to look forward to in the next edition.

I was awarded a funded place to attend the Indo-UK workshop on Green Chemistry for Societal Needs: Healthcare, pollution and circular economies. The workshop was jointly organised by University of York (UK) and Delhi University (India) and funded by the British Council, Newton-Bhabha fund and the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Presenting Retra at the Indo-UK workshop

I was able to connect with both UK and Indian researchers working on waste valorisation. I am excited to build on these connections and explore funding opportunities both in India and the UK to create a flower waste biorefinery. I also spoke to key individuals from the Department of Science and Technology in India, who were impressed with the idea of Retra and encouraged me to apply for future funding calls. I also heard from the technical leads of two pharmaceutical companies about the need for green and sustainable starting materials and the current gap in the industry, which offers a large opportunity for Retra in the B2B sector.

Over the next few days, I am meeting companies in west of India, who are leading producers of essential oils and fine chemicals to explore industry partnerships for Retra.

Wishing you all a very happy holidays and a prosperous new year for 2020 in advance :)

#9 November 2019

Hello from India!

I have finally come home to Bangalore after nearly 2 years. I’ve only been back 72 hours and it is a great feeling. I have come to India to India as a part of the ICURe program to continue my market validation, for a circular economy workshop funded by British Council and of course for Retra!

After my last post from New York I attended a few trade shows and spoke to companies in the UK for my customer discovery and got helpful insights about making technological changes in chemical processing industries. I then attended the In-Cosmetics Asia edition in Bangkok and was welcomed by the 26c heat in November. The trade show was a larger version of the North America edition with a heightened emphasis on products and companies with a green and sustainable initiatives. I also got to attend the formulation workshop and I got hands-on experience on creating lotions, creams and blending essential oils. This will help me with diversifying the product range for Retra and I met with suppliers for raw materials to make these formulations. I was also able to individually meet up with companies like Godrej and Jubilant Life Sciences, big players in the Indian chemical processing sectors, who have shown keen interest to collaborate with the R&D project of Retra. Bangkok also has one of the largest flower markets and also marigold flowers are used in deity worship. However, they are mainly ornamental flowers without a characteristic fragrance. Interestingly, I didn’t find streets littered with flower waste, but I did not get a chance to explore their flower waste disposal system but something to find out in the future.

In between my schedule in India, I will get back in touch with temples where I intend to set up the pilot scale reactors and ensure the space and utility requirements in place, while reaching out to equipment suppliers. A few temples in Bangalore have started composting their flower waste in their backyards and I will visit these temples to see the process and also potentially collaborate with them for Retra.

I am looking forward for the next few weeks in India and I leave you with this post about flower waste during festivals in India, where I’ve shared a few thoughts.

https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/diwali-special-how-to-think-about-flowers-11572006138746.html

Until the next post! :)

#8 October 2019

Hello from New York City!

First of all, thank you very much for following me on my journey last year and this year’s blogs will have (I promise!) less academic entries!

October started off on a busy note (no surprises there!). I enjoyed going to the First Tuesday networking event where I caught up with some familiar faces.

I was invited to do a short pitch at the student enterprise ENTevent at the University and it was good to see students from various background enthusiastic about getting involved in the enterprise activities. It was great meeting the selection of alumni entrepreneurs about whom I’d only read about.

Parimala (M) joins Tom Dewhurst, founder of Ordoo (L) and Eoin Sharkey, founder of The BioFactory (R) at ENTevent 2019.

The big news for the month is that I have been selected for the ICURe program (funded by Innovate UK and managed by SETSquared) which is a program to get the researchers out of the lab to carry out market validation to potentially commercialise University research. It is a fully funded 3 month program to engage companies, regulators, competitors etc with our research. This means a lot of traveling around the world to engage with different markets.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I am interested in utilising my PhD research to up-cycle the essential oils to be used in cosmetics. I attended two trade shows in New York one of which was InCosmetics North America.

This was a very informative trade show with respect to the B2B market for Retra. In summary, the cosmetic industry is now under pressure to go green and there is a huge market for green and sustainable raw materials. However, the cosmetic industry is a highly regulated industry and I learnt that it is essential to have the necessary quality control authorisation to trade in Europe and I met with PWC solutions, a UK based consultancy who authorise new cosmetic products before they can be traded. I also met with a few essential oil suppliers who cultivate their own flower and herb farms to extract essential oils. In addition to the essential oil, the process also yield enriched water which is equally fragrant. Although I knew that it could also be used in cosmetics, I learnt that they were equally a high value product.

I was finally able to make it to the 3 day start-up (3DS) after all these years. I decided to take a step back and get involved in a different company to better understand the dynamics of working in a team. It was a fun filled but an intense weekend (as I also had to fly out the very next day) but I learnt a lot more than I’d expected. I decided to join the team of a fellow Bathonian who pitched about re-using plastic waste originating in research labs.

I connected with this idea as I have generated large amounts of lab plastic waste and I like anything which says recycle! I was surprised by how much we had achieved over the weekend in terms of tidying up the value proposition, operations and a revenue model and in my opinion a great pitch. I also learnt the importance of having team members who can empathise with the vision of the company and it adds a healthy team atmosphere. We are now getting feedback from lab managers at Bath and we are keen on trialling the first phase of the project.

Until the next post! :)

#7 September 2019

It has been a while since my last blog post, but it has been a busy summer with a lot of development. I graduated over the summer and I will now officially begin my journey as an Innovation Award winner.

I was invited to showcase Retra at the Chancellor’s dinner during the graduation week, where I got a chance to interact with distinguished alumni and donors. Retra received a lot of interest and encouragement and it was a very engaging evening. My long term vision is to develop a flower waste bio-refinery – to transform the flower waste into high value chemicals and Retra is a part of this vision.

I have applied for the Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise and Research Fellowships for future grant funding and I will know by the end of this year if I have been successful. In the coming months, I will incorporate my company and spend a few months in India to set-up the pilot phase operations for Retra.

I am excited to finally restart my journey as an entrepreneur and looking forward to the year ahead.

#6 April 2019

Being back in Bath is an amazing feeling and I have gotten back into work mode. I met with Rosie (Innovation Centre Manager) and Siobain (Graduate Enterprise Manager) to discuss the plan for Retra going forward and I got some very useful suggestions about making the extraction unit more compact and easy to assemble. I am now working on re-creating a prototype back in Bath so that I can test the extraction efficiency using flowers available in and around the region. I have also visited an Indian temple in East Ham to investigate the type of flowers that are offered. The flowers are mainly ornamental but in a few festivals actual roses are offered. 3D printing the essential oil extraction unit is another attractive alternative and I will soon start working on creating the designs.

*I am now re-creating the extraction process prototype back at Bath*

I have been shortlisted for the next stage of the Graduate Enterprise Accelerator Showcase. As a part of the process, I got some very useful feedback for my online pitch. I have fine-tuned the technical aspect of Retra but I am lacking a strong marketing and a financial plan. I will now focus on developing both in the coming months and looking forward to working with mentors who can give me further advice. This will help me make my pitch stronger but will also help Retra in the long run.

I am also preparing to apply for the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Enterprise fellowship and potentially the University’s GCRF funding as the vision of Retra fits well with the latter award. This will help in gathering stake holders and international collaborators for Retra if the application is successful.

Til’ the next post! 😀

#5 March 2019

Hello - this time from Bath!

March has been fulfilling as I wrapped up my placement in Eindhoven, submitted my thesis (yay!) and moved back to Bath. It was hard saying goodbyes to my colleagues in Eindhoven but I am also quite relieved that I am now one step closer to finishing my PhD.

I finally got to visit the Keukenhof garden, the home to the largest collection of Tulips and a variety of other flowers. The garden is located in the heart of the flower district in Lisse, from where most of the flowers are exported from the Netherlands. The garden had a beautiful array of the first blooms which mainly consisted of daffodils, tulips and hyacinths.

Tulips in bloom in the Keukenhof garden — *Tulips in bloom in the* Keukenhof garden

The visit was also informative about the lifecycle of tulips and how nearly 99% of the flowers are discarded because they don’t look right! This opens a whole new market for Retra which I am now considering to pursue. This also goes on to show the amount of resources which are required to get the perfect annual flower crop. Some variety of tulips are fragrant and can be utilised for their essential oil while the rest can be used as a manure for the cultivation of the next crop. I have received interests from a few florists in the Netherlands and will look into how Retra can function in the Netherlands in the future.

*The lifecycle of tulips – from bulbs to flowers*

Back in Bath, I am now resuming work on the website for Retra and re-evaluating my business model canvas to better incorporate new ideas from the last few months. I have met with a few academics who research on waste valorisation to get a better understanding of the technical challenges on a pilot scale. I am quite excited about taking part in this year’s Graduate Accelerator Showcase and the Santander Enterprise Awards and looking forward for the whole experience. I have also applied to pitch at the Cleantech Innovate 2019 event in London at the end of this month and I am waiting to hear if I have made it to the pitching day.

#4 February 2019

February has been a short but a super productive month for me in terms of my research as I have now started writing out the journal article for the work done during my placement at TU Eindhoven. This also means I am nearly done with my thesis! My PhD defence date has been set to the last week of May and I booked my flight back to Bath so I am really looking forward to coming back soon.

Retra hasn’t taken a backseat even with an intense month of research and lab work. In addition to being an enterprise, I have always thought of Retra as a worthwhile case study for circular economy and solid waste management. Before I left for my placement, I had discussed this possibility with the academics from chemical engineering and school of management. I was suggested a reading list which has helped me understand how to prepare a case study which is quite different from conducting fundamental research which I am more familiar with. There is also a research group in my faculty primarily involved in studying waste valorisation, its economics and impact on the environment. I am quite keen on collaborating with the group with some data from my pilot scale plant which could lead to an interesting study and a research article. I am also preparing a work plan for the next few months with what I want to achieve while I am still in the UK, which will help me speed up the start-up process once I am back in the country.

*The floating flower market in Amsterdam with tulips in every possible colour.*

Back in India, I got featured yet again on a national and local newspaper. You can read the article here. It is a nice feeling which fills me with optimism every time something like this happens but there is also a lot of hope resting on Retra as a concept which I want to be able to achieve in the coming year. Meanwhile the tulips have started blooming and I will just be able to visit the world famous Tulip festival near Amsterdam before I leave!

#3 January 2019

Happy New Year 2019!

The New Year has begun on a busy note with less than two months to go before I finish my placement in the Netherlands. Which also means, I am now adding the finishing touches to my thesis (adios weekends) and look forward to submitting when I come back to Bath end of March. I am currently finishing a few experiments for the last chapter of my thesis and also a research article in the future.

On the Retra front, I am currently touch basing with my contacts in India and potential collaborations in other cities in the south of India in preparation to my return in the summer this year. I am also in the process of designing the website for the company. It has been a bit slow but I am hoping to make much more progress in the coming months. While on my placement, I learnt about a new technique to analyse the purity of the essential oils. It is a faster and an easier way to measure compared to some conventional techniques and I will analyse the test oils while I have access to the facility.

In addition to religious places, weddings are also a source of used flowers in India. As a few of my friends/cousins are getting married later this year, I have been asked to take a closer look at the floral arrangements with the potential of them being converted into a perfume post wedding. Weddings in India are becoming increasingly eco-friendly and this is a good opportunity for Retra to make impact by helping recycle the used flowers.

I can definitely smell spring in the air which means it is tulip time in this part of the world! I will spend the next two months establishing contact with florists to discuss the opportunity for Retra during the famous tulip auction.

Until the next post!

#2 December 2018

Since my previous blog post, I have been working away in the lab at TU Eindhoven to finish a few experiments before the Christmas break. As a visiting researcher, I am working with two other PhD students at TU/e to utilise sunlight for sustainable chemical processing. We are using a sunlight simulator (to mimic the sun) and a light sensitive catalyst (a catalyst is an accelerating agent in a chemical reaction) and carrying out reactions in a spinning disc reactor (imagine a disc jockey’s console!). The reactor has a fast spinning disc and the spinning motion causes efficient mixing within the reactor leading to fast reactions. We are currently testing reactions for applications in the pharmaceutical industry. It has been a tough month but we have got some fantastic results and already planning our publication.

*Picture of the reactor under the solar light simulator*

Like Bath, TU Eindhoven supports and encourages student entrepreneurs and an innovation space on campus encourages students to work on their start-up. I plan to visit the innovation space after the break. In the meantime, I am researching the tulip flower market in the Netherlands for potential opportunities for Retra.

I am ending this year on a real high as I am nominated for the Forbes Asia 30 under 30 for Retra. They shortlist 300 entrepreneurs from Asia to be featured in 10 different categories. The competition is tough but I am pleased to even just be nominated. Fingers crossed for the final list!

Happy holidays!

#1 November 2018

Floral waste management in India needs immediate attention as it is causing land and water pollution due to the poor handling and disposal. One of the solution is to upcycle the floral waste by extracting essential oils and composting the used biomass for manure, which is the main objective of Retra.

Retra is a sustainable essential oil range derived flowers that are no longer used and discarded. It has evolved from being just an idea to a pilot phase stage, thanks to the various enterprise activities and support provided by Bath SETsquared. Seed funding through the Dragon’s Den competition helped me to validate the idea by carrying out small scale tests back in India last summer. This was followed by winning the University Business Plan competition and the Innovation Bursary this year. The bursary gives me the opportunity to test the market potential of Retra in the market in Bangalore, India. I am in the process of setting up a pilot scale plant in a temple in Bangalore, where I will be using the temple flowers to extract the essential oil. The plan for the 1st year is to work with 2 to 3 temples in close vicinity and use the temples as the marketplace for selling the essential oils. This will also create more job opportunities for the local community and I mainly hope to empower more women through this initiative.

As a winner of the business plan competition, I got the opportunity to meet successful alumni entrepreneurs earlier in October in London. It was a fantastic two days where I gained useful insights and critical feedback on my plans for the future of Retra. The entire experience has taught me to be more pragmatic about my enterprise and think beyond the pilot phase year. Retra was also featured on the BBC news both in UK and India, which helped me reach out to the international community with my enterprise. Following this, I have received a lot of requests to collaborate and I cannot wait to go back to India to extract some oils!

I am currently on a six month research placement in TU Eindhoven as a last part of my PhD. I intend to submit end of March after which I will go back to Bangalore to officially establish Retra.

Alumni Innovation Award 2019 | Retra’s Blog

About Retra

#15 June 2020

#14 May 2020

#13 March & April 2020

#12 February 2020

#11 January 2020

#10 December 2019

#9 November 2019

#8 October 2019

#7 September 2019

#6 April 2019

#5 March 2019

#4 February 2019

#3 January 2019

#2 December 2018

#1 November 2018