Press Release 18th March 2024

Salinity Solutions, an engineering tech start-up based in Birmingham (UK) has secured a GBP £1 million initial investment from SQM Lithium Ventures to fund the next stage of its growth. SQM Lithium Ventures, in return, will take ownership of a minority stake in the company, with the option to acquire additional equity in the future.

SQM Lithium Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of the lithium business of Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (SQM), one of the world’s leading producers of battery-grade lithium chemicals. Salinity Solutions joins the SQM Lithium Ventures portfolio alongside industry-leading companies like Altilium Clean Technology and Electric Era.

Salinity Solutions developed HyBatchä, its ground-breaking batch reverse osmosis water treatment technology – the first in the world to be manufactured commercially – to dramatically reduce the environmental impact of water treatment. The technology uses less energy, purifies a higher amount of wastewater, generates less waste, and is more compact and portable than traditional reverse osmosis systems. The first of Salinity Solutions’ five registered patents has been approved in the European Union, China and the United States.

Since launching in 2021, Salinity Solutions has completed trials in multiple industries, including lithium mining, industrial and municipal wastewater, and food production. The company has built a strong sales pipeline across multiple sectors and geographies.

“SQM’s investment will help us accelerate Salinity’s growth and achieve our 2024 goals of increasing unit sales and securing our first licencing agreement. Their strategic interests in lithium and water, combined with their geographical reach from Chile to China, offer a perfect fit to support our ambitious growth plans,” said Salinity Solutions’ CEO, Richard Bruges.

The investment goes hand-in-hand with SQM’s ongoing drive to improve efficiency and reduce its environmental impact as part of its sustainability goals. These include reducing the use of groundwater by 40% by 2030, decreasing brine extraction in the Salar de Atacama by 20% in 2023 and 50% by 2030, and becoming carbon neutral in lithium production by 2030. As part of its collaboration with SQM, the Salinity Solutions team will run a pilot project in the Salar de Atacama, with its team members based in Antofagasta and other locations in the north of Chile.

Angeles Romo, Director of SQM Lithium Ventures, commented: “SQM Lithium Ventures is investing in Salinity Solutions in hopes that the company, through its revolutionary technology, will be capable of scaling and making an impact across different industries and geographies. This marks our first investment in water, one of our core focus areas for investment along with lithium and electromobility. At SQM Lithium Ventures, we are always seeking to fund projects in cleantech, specifically water, to accelerate start-ups like this one. In doing this, we seek not only to scale the business, but also make an impact on the quality of life of multiple communities.”

Salinity Solutions’ co-founder and CTO, Tim Naughton, commented: “We are delighted to have SQM as a partner as we commercialize our world-leading technology. Global water demand is set to double over the next five years. Water treatment consumes 4% of the world’s total electricity production and conventional reverse osmosis systems are energy intensive. Working with SQM, we can bring significant energy and water savings to the mining sector and many other industries, in Chile and around the world.”

Pablo Melipillan, SQM’s Lithium Process Director for China, who will join the board of Salinity Solutions, commented: “It is a great pleasure to join the water treatment business through this international partnership. With our experience in running innovation and scaling up and building cutting edge industrial projects, SQM can support Salinity to be successful in reaching its technical and commercial goals.”

Salinity Solutions was formed as a spin-off from the University of Birmingham in April 2021, following 10 years of research and development at Aston University and University of Birmingham under the supervision of Professor Philip Davies. Founder Tim Naughton secured an Innovate UK iCURE grant and seed investment from Clean Engineering, followed by two oversubscribed crowdfunding campaigns on Crowdcube. Existing investors, including the University of Birmingham, have added to this investment round over the last six months, investing over £960,000 alongside SQM, providing a total of £1.96M in new funding for the company.

About Salinity Solutions

Salinity Solutions addresses two of the biggest challenges in sustaining human life on earth – water and energy. The company has developed a game-changing batch reverse osmosis water purification technology, which uses half the energy of traditional reverse osmosis methods. Its patented, commercially viable solution has been described as the biggest step forward in water treatment in 50 years and has the potential to benefit every corner of the globe – from wastewater clean-up and high value mineral extraction to rural drinking water supply. http://www.salinitysolutions.co.uk/

About SQM Lithium Ventures

SQM Lithium Ventures, launched in December 2022, seeks to invest in growing companies solving challenges related to lithium, water, and electromobility. The fund invests an average ticket of USD 3 million, plus follow-on investments, in companies across the globe, and also operates an acceleration program based in Antofagasta, Chile, for earlier-stage start-ups within the same three verticals. Parent company SQM is one of the world’s largest producers of lithium for use in electric vehicle batteries.

The fund has a global presence, with team members in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. After evaluating more than 500 companies and completing four investment committees to date, the fund is advancing rapidly in conversations with several of the most innovative companies in its verticals.

The selection process consisted of several months of diligence and meetings with the Salinity Solutions team, culminating with an investment committee with participation of SQM’s CEO, largest shareholders, and key company leaders.

ENDS

Read about how Salinity Solutions has secured a GBP £1 million initial investment from SQM Lithium Ventures to fund the next stage of our growth. SQM Lithium Ventures, in return, will take ownership of a minority stake in the company, with the option to acquire additional equity in the future.

Salinity Solutions secures £1 million investment from SQM Lithium Ventures – Water Magazine

We have just received confirmation that our first Batch RO patent has been granted in the US, joining the EU and China which were granted in December last year. Four further patent applications are going through the approval stages, adding further territories to the list.

Having patents granted in key territories, like the US, is an important milestone for Salinity to be able to enforce our rights of invention, as we look to license our technology around the globe.

Read about us on IOM3:
https://www.iom3.org/resource/food-sector-s-water-purification-technology-trial.html

Great to see Salinity’s trial at GrowUp Farms has been picked up by The Engineer:

https://www.theengineer.co.uk/content/news/trial-aims-to-reuse-wastewater-at-vertical-farm/

We have teamed up with indoor salad producer GrowUp Farms at their vertical farm in Sandwich, Kent, for a 10-day trial to reduce wastewater. Wastewater from the growing process, as well as elsewhere on the site, was collected and re-circulated twice, using our unique batch reverse osmosis technology.

Read more about the trial in Kent at BBC online:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckve938gnv7o

We’re on the BBC! Check out the Yvette Austin’s report of our field trial at GrowUp Farms for BBC South East: 

A big thanks to Te-Tech Process Solutions for their manufacturing support

Please join us in welcoming Steve Wheelhouse as our new Head of Finance.

Steve has nearly 30 years of commercial and hands-on Finance leadership experience gained in the UK and internationally. In addition to key Finance roles at Ford and Lloyds Bank, Steve spent 24 years at IBM, working as CFO/FD in multiple business units completing international leadership assignments in France, Switzerland, and the UAE.

He led Finance for IBM’s hardware business in Northern Europe, was FD for IBM’s Global Technology Services business in the UK and Ireland, and headed up Finance across all of IBM’s business in the Middle East, Africa, Turkey, and Pakistan. He was also Head of Finance for Visa Inc. in the Middle East and Africa. Steve has worked extensively with business partners, developers, and FinTech companies and has shifted focus to providing FD support to SMEs.  

Steve has a track record of delivering significant improvements in profitability, driving business transformation, and building effective Finance organisations.

We’re very pleased to announce the granting of our first patent. After more than two years in the examination phase, our initial patent has been granted in China, France, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, and the UK without challenge. Four further patent applications are going through the approval stages, adding further territories to the list.

We anticipate the next approval in 2024. As we look to license our technology around the globe, having patents granted in key territories is an important milestone for Salinity to be able to enforce our rights of invention.

Press Release

GrowUp Farms, owner of the Kent based pioneering vertical farm Pepperness, will shortly start the food sector’s first trial of a new, disruptive technology which dramatically reduces the environmental footprint of water treatment.

Salinity Solutions’ ground-breaking batch reverse osmosis technology – the first in the world to be manufactured commercially – could have a major impact on reducing wastewater, not only in the food sector but in many other sectors around the world, helping to solve the emerging global water crisis.

GrowUp Farms, which launched its Unbeleafable salad range in Tesco stores this summer, is already a keen advocate of sustainability. Pepperness benefits from state-of-the-art technology to create perfect growing conditions inside to grow food, which is better for the environment as it not only uses less water, but the salad also lasts longer, resulting in less waste.

The trial with Salinity Solutions aims to demonstrate how efficiently wastewater can be captured, purified to the highest food standards and reused at Pepperness, so GrowUp can use even less water and reduce its impact on the planet even further.

GrowUp Farms Impact Director Gillon Dobie said “Producing more food with less resources is central to our philosophy, no more so than when it comes to our water use. We’re already making great strides to conserve this precious resource at Pepperness but we’re striving to get even better. We’re delighted to be working with Salinity Solutions on this trial, which we hope will make a big difference to improving our positive impact.”

Globally, demand for water is set to double over the next five years. Water treatment consumes 4% of the world’s total electricity production and conventional reverse osmosis* systems are traditionally energy intensive. Crucially, Salinity Solutions’ technology uses half the energy of existing systems while recovering up to 98% of clean water, while it is also compact and easily transportable.

Salinity Solutions’ co-founder Liam Burlace added: “We’re very grateful to GrowUp Farms for allowing us to demonstrate our technology in the food sector and hope this trial marks the beginning of a long-term collaboration with them. Our shared goal is to reduce the consumption of energy and water so the results of this trial could have a significant impact on how the food industry manages its resources.”

Funding for the trial at Pepperness in Kent (coincidentally one of the driest UK counties) has been secured through a £29,000 sustainability grant from Growing Kent and Medway’s ‘Business Sustainability Challenge’ grant, which addresses key sustainability issues and opportunities. GrowUp Farms was one of 13 beneficiaries of a grant pot worth more than £1.6 million to fund projects in the region that will sustainably transform the horticultural and plant-based food and drink supply chain.

Dr Nikki Harrison, Programme Director for Growing Kent & Medway, said:

“We are investing in real-world business innovation and research projects that demonstrate how science-led, sustainable innovation can be deployed throughout the supply chain. This not only benefits the environment by helping Kent businesses become more sustainable but also stimulates economic growth. Fresh thinking can help create new revenue streams and new markets from waste by-products and processes. “While these projects demonstrate the exciting innovation happening in Kent and Medway, we expect the knowledge that is gained to help transform our food systems throughout the sector.”

– ENDS –

Notes to editor:  *Reverse Osmosis (RO) is a process where water purified by pumping it through a semi-permeable membrane. Conventional RO uses a lot of energy as the pumping energy is lost when the water passes through the membrane. Salinity Solutions’ technology more than halves the energy used through a patented combination of a pressure exchange vessel and advanced recirculation control, developed from theory to reality over 10 years of research at the Universities of Birmingham and Aston.

Media Contact
Sophie Banks / Angie Cronin, Loudbird PR and Communications
07815 147073 / 07970 810302  [email protected]

About GrowUp Farms

• GrowUp Farms was founded by Kate Hofman and Tom Webster in 2013 and is a pioneer in UK vertical farming.  
• GrowUp Farms grows its salads in a controlled environment, where the climate provides the plants with perfect conditions. This means it can grow to the best standard all year round and is
  resilient to climate change.
• GrowUp Farms was the first vertical farm to introduce a branded salad into a supermarket chain in the UK with the launch of Fresh Leaf Co. in Iceland stores across the country in February of 2023 and the Unbeleafable range in Tesco in July 2023.
• GrowUp Farms’ vertical farm, Pepperness, is near Sandwich, Kent. It combines innovative farming technology with renewable energy, using electricity and waste heat from the bioenergy plant next door, which means the farm is not affected by the energy price increases squeezing greenhouse and conventional farmers in the UK.
• GrowUp Farms is B Corp certified with a high B Impact Score of 104.7 points, against the pass threshold of 80 points. The score reflects GrowUp Farms’ commitment to the high standards set by B Corp to achieve social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability in all areas of the business as well as contributing to the economic and social well-being of the communities that GrowUp Farms operates in, alongside a commitment to environmental causes.

About Salinity Solutions
Salinity Solutions addresses the two biggest challenges in sustaining human life on earth – water and energy. The University of Birmingham spin-out, established in 2021, has developed a game-changing batch reverse osmosis water purification technology, which uses half the energy of traditional methods. Its patented, commercially viable solution has been described as the biggest step forward in water treatment in 50 years and has the potential to benefit every corner of the globe – from industrial wastewater clean-up and high value mineral extraction to rural drinking water. http://www.salinitysolutions.co.uk/

Media Contact for Salinity Solutions
Jane Griffin +44 7767 642930
[email protected]

About Growing Kent & Medway
Growing Kent & Medway is supported by UK Research and Innovation’s Strength in Places Fund. It is a world-class research, innovation and enterprise cluster that connects businesses in the region to support innovation and to establish the area as a world-leader in sustainable horticultural food and drink production.

www.growingkentandmedway.com @GrowingKent_Med