A green technology company which span out of the University of Cambridge is going global in a bid to help rid the world of polluting single-use plastics – with a ground-breaking material made from plant proteins. The firm is now helping major household brands eliminate hard to recycle plastic from packaging, using natural sources like potato, rapeseed and sunflowers.
Net zero businesses in the East of England are thriving: a report out today from CBI Economics reveals regional growth in the sector last year was among the strongest in the UK. That means businesses like Xampla are seeing a rising demand for their products.
Over the past year, net zero companies in the East have seen an 11.8 per cent growth in employment – equalled only by the South East. In total the firms contribute £6.2 billion to the region’s economy, and support 83,400 jobs.
Across the UK as a whole, jobs growth in net zero businesses was 10.1 per cent between 2023 and 2024 – they employed 273,000 people directly and supported a further 678,000 jobs through supply chain and related activities. The UK’s net zero economy now generates £83.1 billion in Gross Value Added (GVA) and has grown 10% in the past year, the report finds.
East Anglia is highlighted in the report as a hub for net zero companies and Xampla’s CEO, Alexandra French, says its Cambridge roots have been a major factor in its success and growth: “The Cambridge ecosystem has many things which support businesses – it gave us the skills to take scientific research and turn it into a business. It’s great for the East of England and it’s great for us to have been part of that as we have grown.”
Xampla began life as a post-doctoral project in the university’s chemistry department, and in five years has grown into a thriving business with 40 employees. Its products, which are made from plant proteins, are completely biodegradable and in some cases are even designed to be edible.
Its Morro Coating made from plants is now being launched in Europe and the firm is talking to partners globally. Its aim is to replace plastic in a variety of products including takeaway cartons and food packaging. The firm has also produced a soluble film to create a dishwasher tablet wrapping free of microplastics which contaminate oceans and drinking water. And it has even developed an edible film to package foods such as instant noodles and porridge oats, with plastic-free sachets that can be dropped directly into hot water or milk.
The products are all plastic-free and fully biodegradable, so they can either be recycled or composted at home. Among the major brands which use the products are the recipe box supplier Gousto, which has introduced edible stock cube wrappers, and Britvic, which is able to use the technology to incorporate vitamins into its drinks without losing shelf life.
The firm was supported by the university’s impulse programme, which helps turn technology and life science knowledge into commercial ventures, and was also supported by the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership’s Canopy programme.
“While we started in Cambridge we are very much global in our strategy, with business ambitions in the US and Asia as well as Europe,” Alexandra French says. “It can be really, really hard for consumers to know when they’re making a great choice – there’s a lot of greenwashing and confusing messaging, and it’s frankly difficult to know if a piece of packaging is plastic free. If you see the Morro mark, you know you’ve made a great choice for the planet. This is the material of tomorrow, replacing plastic, which is a material of the past.”
“The big brands have a really strong desire to do this, but previously there wasn’t anything like this out there on the market. We’ve really pioneered that change and made it both viable and scalable.”
Xampla had its origins in more than15 years of research at the University of Cambridge led by Professor Tuomas Knowles with Dr Marc Rodriguez, who is now the company’s chief technical officer. The organisation is growing fast, having secured more than £15m in investment since its launch five years ago. It now has the capacity to replace up to 25,000 tonnes of plastic coating with its natural materials in the next five years.
Jobs in this sector stand out for their productivity, with each full-time role generating £105,500 in economic value – 38% above the UK average. This enhanced productivity translates into higher wages, with employees in net zero businesses earning an average of £43,076 per year. Since 2022, the sector has added 125,700 full-time equivalent jobs, reflecting a 15.2% increase in total employment contributions
The report from CBI Economics, commissioned by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, finds the UK economy gains £27.2 billion directly from net zero businesses each year – a figure which has risen by £6 billion since 2022. Net zero businesses have attracted nearly £23 billion in private funding and £1.1 billion in Innovate UK grants since 2019, it says. In the East the biggest contributions come from the supply of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning, manufacturing, wholesale and the retail trade.
More about University of Cambridge impulse programme here: https://ie.cam.ac.uk/support_article/impulse-programme/
For more information see https://xampla.com/
For more information: https://xampla.com/morro-materials/
Canopy is a community of startups, companies, academics and investors brought together by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership to foster and scale commercially relevant solutions to global sustainability challenges.