CNN’s Startup Trail reports on Cycled, a startup company founded by Ayoola Brimmo and Matteo Chiesa whose mission it is to tackle plastic waste. Brimmo, a Nigerian native, was united with his former professor, Chiesa, through their shared vision for making an impact.
Brimmo’s startup, Cycled, has developed AI-powered smart bins designed to sort waste efficiently and incentivize recycling. He and Chiesa were inspired by a real-life case study, “I went to a landfill in Lagos, Nigeria, where I’m from, and the light bulb moment was basically when we did the maths around it and realized that close to $100 million worth of material ends up in that landfill every year. I thought, this is big. So, what can we do to retrieve this value and make a business out of it?”
With seed funding securing his initial steps, Brimmo is poised to revolutionize waste management and make a significant global impact in sustainability. He talks CNN through his machines to tackle one of the world’s most pressing environmental issues, “It’s a collection and segregation station for recyclables. […] The machine basically has image recognition and optical sensors to know what you have thrown in, and also it has characterization technology to understand the quantity of what you have thrown in.”
The funding journey is crucial in turning visionary ideas into impactful realities. Brimmo’s journey is grounded through a blend of discipline from his Jiu-Jitsu practice and his relentless drive to tackle plastic pollution. He says, “There’s infinite amount of ways you can improve in Jiu-Jitsu, you start with your hands, with your legs, with your mind, whatever, and it is the same in business. There is so much in common. It’s a limitless form of improvement.”
In this special half-hour programme CNN’s Startup Trail explores Abu Dhabi’s thriving startup community and its expanding ecosystem where Brimmo and Chiesa are aiming to grow even further, advance their tech, offer more products and extend across the region.
