Enval’s Managing Director to speak at the Global University Venturing Summit

This week our Managing Director Carlos Ludlow-Palafox will be among the speakers at the Global University Venturing Summit 2014. Carlos will be speaking as part of the entrepreneur showcase, discussing the initial challenges companies face after the university spin-out and how these can be overcome.

The Global University Venturing Summit is the annual global gathering for Venture Capital and Private Equity professionals interested in investing in innovations from University spinout companies. This year’s summit will tackle the theme of “Innovation through Collaboration”, and discuss how universities foster innovation across campus, with peer institutions, investors, governments, and corporations.

Enval is a spin-out of the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Cambridge. The Enval story began when Professor Howard Chase of the Department of Chemical Engineering began investigating potential environmental applications for the microwave heating of carbon. Carlos began working with Professor Chase on his PhD and conducted substantial research into the microwave pyrolysis of plastics. The next few years saw a successful worldwide patent application.

In 2005, Howard and Carlos won the Cambridge University Entrepreneurs’ Business Creation Competition and founded Enval Ltd. The company constructed our first pilot-plant of the process and secured significant investment from a syndicate of investors. Following the creation of the Enval Consortium and investment from major multinational brands, the company was able to begin work on the first commercial demonstration plant for the Enval process.