Months of 3am calls, late-night meetups and building cross-border relationships seem rather apt for a startup referred to as the “Tinder for Trash”. But for CiRCLR founders, Sara Smeath and Chris Saunders, the many weeks of early-hour business pitches to policymakers, businesses, investors and global startup communities around the world have not been without reward.
The Northland parents of four have been selected to present their business, CiRCLR, on stage at the United Nations Climate Conference COP27 in Egypt this week as part of a global cohort of top technologies addressing climate change.
CiRCLR’s technology separates waste from wasted opportunities, by matchmaking businesses to create circular economies.
Every exchange provides sustainable transparency for businesses, their consumers and lenders.
“We see CiRCLR as a no-brainer for businesses, by extracting more value from their resources while reducing waste sent to landfill,” says Saunders. “We’re helping break silos across industries with more diverse supply chains, smaller carbon footprints and access to green finance with sustainable actions they can prove.”
At COP27 the couple is focusing on promoting CiRCLR as the way to connect the dots for businesses, by simplifying circular economies and unlocking a $600 billion dollar “wasted” opportunity in the food and agriculture sector.
CiRCLR was selected as the first New Zealand business to participate in the GSUP2.0 CivTech Alliance – a cross-border government tech scale-up programme.
The programme has opened up new opportunities and soft landings around the globe. Government organisations across the European Union and Australia were excited to learn more about CiRCLR. Using CiRCLR would help them achieve their net-zero goals by breaking industry silos and connecting value-added opportunities to supply chains by reducing waste going to landfill.
“Travelling to COP27 not only provides the opportunity to present our business to a global audience and meet those we have started conversations with, but we look forward to further connecting to global policymakers, industry and others who are passionate about making a difference,” says Saunders.
