SP OTLIGH T Carolina Avellaneda

Here at Dynamic, we’re rooting for Carolina Avellaneda and her company, BubbleLife. Carolina tells us a bit about herself and what BubbleLife is all about

My name is Carolina Avellaneda and I am a co-Founder and Managing Partner of BubbleLife Ltd with my partner Jon McGlashan. Our mission is to replace plastic packaging used in personal care, starting with liquid soap, bath and shower products, through our radical new packaging solution CMT (Compostable Membrane Technology) known more affectionally as ‘Bubbles’.

When I arrived in the UK in 2017, I was shocked by the number of plastic bottles that were used in the bathroom, and even more so when I discovered that fewer than 50% of bathroom products that could be recycled actually were. Th is is partly due to people not generally having a recycling bin in their bathroom. However, many beauty products use plastics that are not widely recycled, that require specific recycling facilities to be processed and use plastics that can only be recycled once or twice.

The result is that most of these plastic containers will end up in landfi lls, often travelling hundreds, if not thousands of miles, adding further to the negative impact that they have on the environment. Having tried alternatives such as shampoo bars and bar soaps, we realised how little innovation appeared to be taking place to solve these problems.

With this situation in front of us and the fact that the bar soap alternatives did not seem to last anywhere near as long as they were meant to, we decided to fi nd a solution to the problem.

Originally from Colombia, I came to the UK to study for my Masters in Environment, Development and Policy, not expecting that once I had fi nished my studies, I would be starting my entrepreneurial journey. Prior to living in the UK, I was working with Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities, building sustainable alternatives to preserve their culture and traditions. Th is experience gave me a deep understanding of the importance of diversity for fi nding accurate solutions for a specific problem.

Using my background in the sciences, I went to work in my kitchen trying out different methods and solutions to create an alternative to plastics to house various different liquid soaps, some with more success than others. However, after much trial and error, I was able to create a working prototype – and BubbleLife was born.

Having created the initial Bubble prototype, we entered the Social Impact Prize in 2019, hosted by the University of Sussex and the Sussex Innovation Centre where we won the initial funding and support to turn BubbleLife into a reality.

We wanted a product capable of satisfying the consumers’ preference for liquid soaps, a product that could be stored in wet environments, such as the shower, bath, or close to the sink, and didn’t melt or dissolve when wet with water. At the same time the product needed to be environmentally responsible and efficient for the consumer, ensuring they can use all the product they buy.

And we did it!

Since winning the Social Impact Prize, BubbleLife has been voted one of the top 10 start-ups to watch in Brighton in 2020 by the NatWest Accelerator and I was extremely fortunate to have been awarded the Innovate UK: Women in Innovation Award 22/23 and the Dynamic Awards: Innovator of the Year Award 2022, all of which proudly sit on my desk. We have also taken part in the BRITE INSPIRE programme which really provided us with a clear focus on where we were going as a business.

All this support has kept us going and persevering to reach BubbleLife’s vision. It has put the company in a position where we will soon be looking to raise our fi rst round of investment, and launching our fi rst products focussing on 4*/5* hotels, together with an online subscription service for personal use.

What is coming next is incredibly exciting and while we have been relatively quiet up until now, this should change when we launch our website towards the beginning of April. We want to disrupt the market with a product that will really make a difference, for us as consumers and for the environment directly. We want to be the change and we want to prove that we can change now!