A company focusing on turning bioplastic waste into fuel recently won the Stellenbosch University (SU) campus round of an international competition. This is according to Jeanne Hugo, an SU BComHons (Business Management) student and the SU campus director for the Hult Prize.
Winning the competition brings the company, Urobo Biotech, one step closer to winning $1 million, said Hugo, who started planning the event in October 2024. The event was hosted through SU’s Launch Lab.
The Hult Prize is a global pitching competition for student entrepreneurs who are expected to propose ideas to tackle global challenges, aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, said Hugo.
Six teams participated in the local event, which SMF News attended.
“The point behind [the competition] is to develop a solution that is for good and for profit,” said Hugo.
Dominique Rocher, co-founder and chief operating officer (COO) of Urobo Biotech, won the first-ever SU-hosted Hult Prize campus round on 27 February. PHOTO: Hannah Abrahams.
Urobo Biotech, the winning team
The biotechnology company works with existing waste management companies to transform bioplastic waste into high-value fuels and chemicals. This is according to Dominique Rocher, co-founder and chief operating officer (COO) of Urobo Biotech.
“Urobo Biotech was founded in June 2023 as a spin-out from SU and the University of Padua in Italy, following the development of its [core technology] based on Dr Wessel Myburgh’s PhD research,” said Rocher.
Rocher and Daniele Vezzini, her team member on Urobo Biotech, are co-tutelage PhD students in Microbiology and Crop Science, conducting research between SU and the University of Padua under the supervision of Prof Marinda Viljoen-Bloom and Prof Lorenzo Favaro.
“We believe waste is only waste if you waste it,” said Rocher, during her pitch. She added that the surge in the production and use of bioplastic has led to increased waste, posing significant challenges in waste management.
Rocher said that Urobo Biotech addresses this issue with “bio-inspired technologies that treat bioplastics at their end-of-life, maximising their value”. She added that bioplastics are derived from renewable sources such as corn and sugarcane and can be biobased, biodegradable, or both.
“Some bioplastics, even when fully biobased, may not degrade naturally [and] many bioplastics do not break down in natural environments or conventional waste facilities,” said Rocher.
The Stellenbosch University on-campus finals round of the Hult Prize took place on 27 February at the Victoria Hub. Six teams of student entrepreneurs each had four minutes to pitch their idea to a panel of judges in front of an audience. PHOTO: Hannah Abrahams.
Choosing a winner out of the six groups was not an easy decision, said Fumani Jwara, a judge at SU’s Hult Prize, and communications and projects officer at the Centre for Science Communication at SU.
Ultimately, what made Urobo Biotech stand out was its straightforward pitch and depth of research, “and the fact that they are dealing with a climate issue […] we are heading closer to having to find solutions [for climate issues],” said Jwara.
Urobo Biotech will now compete in the national round of the competition, set to take place in April.
The national round winner, selected from university campus winners, advances to the Hult Prize digital incubator, where ideas are refined for the next competition round. This is according to Hult Prize competition rules.
Urobo Biotech is announced as the winner of Stellenbosch University’s first-ever Hult Prize on-campus competition. They will go on to pitch their idea in the national round of the competition, set to take place in April this year.