696. Arelys Sosa, Drev: Black dust collectors (STARTUP 4 CLIMATE FINALIST)

During the process of producing and recycling batteries, there is always a waste product in the shape of black dust. It might seem like a minor issue, but it contains critical raw materials that are both valuable to the ecosystem and hazardous to the human workers. Arelys Sosa was part of the core team when building the very first Tesla Gigafactory in Nevada, and soon realised that no one took proper care of the valuable side stream.

This eventually led her to Gothenburg, where she founded Drev four years ago - a startup tackling this problem using both patented hardware and smart tracking software. The company already has paying clients and are currently operating in several markets. Drev is on of eight finalists in Startup 4 Climate, the competition initiated by Swedish electricity companies GodEl and Ellevio.

After the final pitches on November 10th, two winning companies walk away with 1 MSEK each. Heja Framtiden has a paid collaboration with the competition. Podcast host: Christian von Essen // Learn more at hejaframtiden.