News / Enterprise
Young Bristol entrepreneur wins national award
A young entrepreneur from Bristol has been awarded a further boost to his early-stage business by Innovate UK.
Through the Young Innovators Next Steps Awards, Albie Baker-Smith been awarded £50,000 from the innovation agency to grow and scale his business over the 12-month programme.
The University of Bristol graduate is the creator of Route Zero, a web platform designed to help people and businesses find the most eco-friendly travel routes, in turn helping to reduce their travel related emissions.
Since winning an initial Young Innovators Award, the 27-year-old has established partnerships with travel providers, deployed the tool to a number of corporations and is now looking to expand his team.
Albie Baker-Smith has been awarded £50,000 to grow and scale his business – photo: Four Agency
Commenting on his award and project, Albie said: “We have long-term ambitions to make a substantial contribution to combatting climate change.
“By collaborating with thousands of enterprise customers, we aim to prevent ten million tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere.
“Innovate UK’s Young Innovator Award provided invaluable pitch coaching and advice. With the Next Steps Award, our plan is to expand our team, accelerating the development of products on our roadmap.”
Albie joins a cohort of 17 young people with business ideas that could “change the world” that will benefit from a share of the almost £1m awarded in total.
He is the creator of Route Zero, a web platform designed to help people and businesses find the most eco-friendly travel routes – photo: Four Agency
Emily Nott, head of equality, diversity, and inclusion at Innovate UK, added: “These young people have managed to turn their brilliant ideas for innovation into successful businesses.
“Our young innovators have worked tirelessly to realise their ambitions and Innovate UK is proud to have helped them on this journey.
“Their disruptive innovations will have significant social and economic impacts and I hope that their stories will help many more young people to see that a future career in innovation could be for them.”
Building upon the success of the Young Innovators awards, Innovate UK is also now launching the Diverse Innovators Award, to support even more young entrepreneurs, women founders and other communities who are underrepresented in innovation.
Main photo: Four Agency
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