Chitosan: Something from Nothing.

“Big ideas start as weird ideas” — The quote itself is very weird and yet it is a revolutionary change in the thinking pattern of people. Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, was considered a weird person with an unrealistic approach by the people in NASA. The same guy is now praised for the work done by him and his team. Wonders always happen to those who dares to walk on the road less taken by the majority of the people. There are many companies which are working on things with different approaches and many of them are getting success and support from the people in the industry as well as from the customers. One such company is Chitosan, an Egyptian biotech startup which converts shrimp shells into fertilizers for commercial supply to its client with the demand.

Story of Inception

Chitosan has a very interesting story behind its inception. The startup is an accidental result for the problem of Qaroun Lake’s trouble ecosystem. Shahira Yahia and Ehab Usama, founding members, were on a walk by the lake to find the solution for the same. The main problem was that the lake was surrounded by three villages, so the lake worked as a waste outlet of the three which affected the ecosystem of the lake as a result of which fish of the lake died. They couldn’t find the solution for the main problem but they found that the lake offers huge amounts of shrimp shells. They saw this resource as a new opportunity to grow into the best out of the waste industry. Though the inception is accidental but the distance between the input and output was very planned and was executed with the hard work of the team of Chitosan.

Finding best out of waste

A lot of research work was conducted on the ways in which these shells could be used in order to get commercial profit. Chitosan is the second most available natural material after cellulose, extracted from so many sources like shrimp shells, lobsters & fungus. “We extract it from shrimp shells and this kind is called “Alpha Chitosan,” which is the highest grade of chitosan,” Usama explains in one of his interviews. Chitosan was founded in early 2018 and since then did extensive research and mass production of bio-polymer product Chitosan which is buzzing in the industries associated with the same. It catalyzes manufacturing in industries such as medical, pharmaceutical, water treatment, agricultural, industrial and many other sectors.

Logic behind the idea

In the process of shrimp peeling, shells were left out with no constructive use. They were either thrown or farmers fed their cattle with those shells which was the primary known usage of those valuable shells. If they were not used in any productive use, they were dumped in the lake which in return creates environmental issues. In an interview Shahira Yahia, CMO, said that the biotech startup gave a new and more valuable purpose to the shells. The startup was able to communicate with the villagers and built a very productive relationship with the villagers. At least 10,000 women working by the seas outlining Egypt, source, collect shrimp shells, and send them out to the labs to extract the chitosan which then goes to factories to turn them into agricultural fertilizers

Some interesting facts about the startup

• The company has recycled 500+ tons of shrimps shells
• Major participation of women is seen with the involvement of 200+ women.
• The company created a value of 2bn+ till now.
• The company successfully converted 1600+ acres to organic.
• The company has successfully partnered with Chipsy, Heinz, Sekem, etc.

In one of the interviews the CEO of the company said — “When we conducted the matrix and feasibility study for all the existing sectors, we found agriculture to be the most suitable sector to start with. It has the biggest need as it’s the easiest market to enter because it suffers from strong pain points in the available products.” In many countries it has been observed that agriculture sectors are coming out to be a strong market for the new startups to have a boosted start in the field.

Since the initial starting of the startup, the growth is exponential with the market value of the company going from 10 million to 47 million within a year. Chitosan has about 13,000 local researchers actively working in their labs. This gradual success came because of the weird idea and building the profitable hat on the same. The startup is an unique example for the principal which states that — “Though one has to struggle and face some of the most difficult situations on the road less taken but at the end they reach their destiny with a major success as they were different from the rest and yet constructive & profitable by nature. ”