Circular economy coaching for start-up Grafren, funded by C-voucher EU project
Circular graphene filter with AFRY coaches
Circular economy coaching to help start-up Grafren develop a circular business.
Grafren has developed a unique technology to extract metals from water with a graphene filter, called Filtrene. The metals can be harnessed from the filter so that both the metals and the filter can be used again, and the water is purified from metals. To develop the circular business to support the adoption of this technology, Grafren received coaching in service design and circular business model innovation by AFRY. This was part of the EU-funded project C-voucher. AFRY helped Grafren, as well as two other small and medium-sized companies (SMEs), to:
- Understand and prioritize uncertainties in their circular offer
- Formulate and validate their hypotheses
- Assess the sustainability impact of their circular business case
- Identify customer value
- Develop their products and services concepts
- Understand and map business models
All three SMEs presented their business cases in a pitching session. With the support from AFRY the SMEs were able to validate, adapt and strengthen their initial business cases. "The contribution from AFRY was extremely valuable due to focused efforts of dedicated experts with matching competence and expertise", says Erik Khranovskyy, CEO of Grafren. The next round of SME’s to receive the coaching by AFRY will start in January 2021. Applications to the project will open in the fall of 2020 at the website of SAERG (tillväxtverket).
Client: Tillväxtverket (saerg, Swedish agency for economic and regional growth)
Object: C-voucher EU project (funded by Horizon 2020)
Project: Circular economy coaching for Grafren
Period: Jan-March 2020
Our role: Coaching
Scope: Circular economy and service design coaching and consulting