Viridi's Growth Journey with the Kickstart Programme

Founded in 2021 from Dr Daniel Stewart’s PhD research at the University of Southampton, Viridi (trading under “ViridiCO2”) delivered a breakthrough in Carbon Capture Utilisation—enabling manufacturers to replace up to 50% of traditional petrochemical feedstocks with CO₂, cutting emissions, reducing costs, and supporting a circular economy.

In May 2022, Dan and the ViridiCO₂ team joined the Grand Scale Kickstart programme to strengthen their commercial strategy and position the company for rapid growth. 

A year later, they had achieved:

3 paid commercial trials 
with industry partners

£3M raised 
at a £12M pre-money valuation

Shipments to customers in the 
USA, Japan, and the Netherlands

Fast forward to 2025, Viridi announced another investment round backed by EQT Ventures and Possible Ventures, accelerating commercial roll-out and delivery of multiple customer contracts.

Reflecting on their journey, Dan highlights the lasting impact of the Kickstart programme on their commercial success:

In October 2025, Viridi reached another major milestone with the launch of Vireya™ — the world’s first anionic surfactant made using captured CO₂.

A breakthrough product, Vireya™ turns CO₂ into one of the most widely used building blocks in everyday essentials — from dishwashing liquids to bodywash and cosmetics. It replaces traditional oil palm-derived ingredients by using upcycled CO₂ captured directly from a manufacturer’s own emissions. 

The result: a 70% lower product carbon footprint and a radical step forward for sustainability in consumer goods and home-care products. Viridi plans to license the technology to surfactant manufacturers, with commercial deployment targeted for 2026. 

This achievement demonstrates Viridi’s ongoing commitment to transforming CO₂ from an abundant industrial by-product into a renewable feedstock for sustainable, high-performance ingredients used in everyday products.

The company has also expanded significantly since joining Kickstart, growing from a founding team of five to a 17-strong organisation driving R&D, partnerships, and commercial delivery.

To reflect its expanding reach and maturity, Viridi also unveiled a new brand and website, showcasing its pioneering technology, partnerships, and product portfolio. 

The launch marks another step in the company’s evolution from spinout to commercial leader, as it continues to scale its impact across markets.

The Story Behind the Growth

Hear from Dan as he shares Viridi’s full Kickstart journey, from the initial challenges they faced, to the commercial strategies they adopted, the breakthroughs they achieved, and the transformation that followed, all of which laid the groundwork for their recent scaling successes.

The Challenge:

Prior to joining the Grand Scale Kickstart for ICURe programme, Viridi faced a significant challenge. As innovators in converting waste carbon dioxide into high-value chemical products, the company struggled with the challenge of not having a well-defined sales and marketing strategy to engage with enterprise-level clients. This significantly impacted their potential for growth and their ability to acquire new high value customers.

The Solution:

Guided by the expertise of Leanne and Ro, Viridi successfully developed a clear and defined go-to- market strategy. Kickstart also provided actionable approaches and techniques that the team implemented immediately. This allowed the start-up to efficiently build awareness and establish meaningful engagement with enterprise clients.

The Breakthrough:

Viridi honed their expertise at every juncture of the customer journey – from initial contact to closing the deal. They acquired the skills to craft marketing content that seamlessly aligned with their strategy, ensuring resonance with potential enterprise clients. The programme also introduced a game-changing technical bottom-of-funnel marketing strategy – an approach that is helping Viridi effectively convert warm leads into customers.

The Transformation:

Empowered by insights and tools acquired from the Kickstart programme, Viridi made monumental strides in their client outreach endeavours. They not only developed an effective marketing strategy to engage enterprise-level B2B clients but are now confident in turning these opportunities into tangible sales.

The Recommendation:

"I would highly recommend the Kickstart programme to anybody out there within the business world that is looking to gain, execute, and build on their business-to-business or business-to-customer marketing strategy. It was brilliant to work with Leanne and Ro. It's obvious that they are greatly experienced in this area and they're able to tailor the programme to what I required as our business model was slightly different to others, and to be able to do that and structure it to what we required greatly benefited our company."

 Dr. Daniel Stewart, CEO and Co-Founder of Viridi