Meet Beena: the award-winning CEO helping businesses to reach net zero

• Business name: CCU International 

• Industry: Environmental technology 

• Founded in: December 2022

• Top business product: Business insurance 

• Key learning: “It’s important to listen to what the market’s telling you, as if you are too caught up in your product or service you won’t be listening to what your customer actually needs.”

Beena Sharma isn’t wasting any more time when it comes to climate change. 

She started her career specialising in behavioural change programmes in the oil and gas industry, as one of the only women working on an LNG plant in Nigeria. She calls this her ‘baptism of fire’, and it was the beginning of an awarding-winning career driving innovation in industries like renewables, manufacturing and construction. 

Now, Beena is a CEO and co-founder of CCU International, a business with proprietary carbon capture technology that can help large and small businesses to achieve net zero by 2050. 

This innovative technology has caught the attention of many across the world, and CCU International has won awards including a national Small Business of the Year award this year.

Beena has big plans for the next 18 months, and here she reflects on the lessons she’s learned from the first two years of trading. 

Why did you decide to start your own business? 

My father was an entrepreneur and he set up a business when he came to the UK in the early 1970s - so I’ve always had some entrepreneurial spirit! Plus, in previous jobs I’ve always wanted to be the one making the decisions. When I moved to Aberdeen seven years ago with my family, I decided it was time to do something different. 

How would you describe your business? 

CCU International has carbon capture technology that aims to dramatically reduce current greenhouse gas emissions to slow global warming and achieve net zero targets. It does this by capturing the carbon dioxide gases from flue and chimney stacks so that it’s not emitted into the atmosphere. Previously, this technology had been built for large companies, but there are also many small businesses that cannot achieve net zero unless they adopt carbon capture. So our solution supports the big companies and the SMEs, as we make carbon capture solutions affordable. 

How long have you been running the business? 

We set up the company in December 2022, as part of a spinout from University of Sheffield. Success then came quickly because by March we had landed a six-figure deal to deliver capture technology for an industry project led by Unilever and the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI), capturing emissions from the steel and paper mills in the UK to convert into chemical surfactants – a key ingredient in detergents. We had done our research so we knew there was a lot of demand in this space. 

What was one of the biggest challenges when you started the business? 

One of the challenges of setting up CCU International was actually getting the right business insurance. This isn’t typical of all startups, but for one that has novel technology like ours, it meant insurance companies hadn’t dealt with someone like us before. We had to educate them on what we were trying to achieve, so we could get personalised insurance that suited our business’ needs. 

Luckily, there are specialist insurance companies that can help. You’ll have to do your research, but by talking to people in your industry this will steer you in the right direction. There’s nothing wrong with going to a competitor and asking them, ‘Who do you use for insurance?’. Competitors have asked me before, and I have no problem with offering some guidance. 

We had similar challenges with loans, so the business was personally funded by our founding team alongside an Innovate UK grant which helped to get our technology off the ground. Plus, we’re now working with investors to help with future growth. 

How can business owners make sure they are getting the right financial products? 

I think before someone goes looking for products - and there are a lot of products out there - they need to decide what they are absolutely not going to do. For example with business loans, you might decide not to give any personal guarantees and you aren’t going to go over a 10% interest rate. As soon as you know what you aren’t willing to compromise on, this will help your search. It’ll also mean you have conversations with providers that are worth having. 

What’s next for your business? 

The only way we can achieve our goals is to get more investment, so we are currently seed funding. We’ve now got clients across the world and things are moving quickly. Climate change is not something we can wait five or ten years for, we need to make a difference now. If we’re ever going to reach net zero, then our clients need a solution, so we need to be quicker and we need to be cheaper. And that’s why we need substantial investment. 

We’ve got a number of lead investors that we’re going through due diligence with at the moment and we’re hoping to close the seed round very soon. That investment will be going to equipment so we can build the technology for our clients. We currently have a team of four people but we’ll need to recruit 30 to 50 people into the business to meet the demand. Then maybe increase the team to 100 in the next 18 months and set up offices around the world.

What would you say to someone who wants to start their own business? 

I always say, take a leap of faith. It’s better if you do it and fail at it, than if you don’t do it at all. There will be some failures along the way or things won’t go to plan, so be prepared to be agile and go with it. That’s the beauty of a small business as you can adapt, pivot and grow as you need to. It’s also key to listen to what the market’s telling you, as if you are too caught up in your product or service you won’t be listening to what your customer actually needs. Talk to your customers and ask them for feedback as this will help you to build a business that suits them.  

This case study is for informational purposes only and is not intended as financial or professional advice. The results described are specific to the individual's personal experience, so please consult with a qualified professional if you need financial advice.