Belfast man tops UK poll for foods of the future

Invest Northern Ireland revealed that Belfast-based biotechnologist, entrepreneur, founder and owner of Born Maverick Food Innovation, Azhar Murtuza has topped the poll in TechRound’s Top 50 BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) Entrepreneurs Under 50 of 2022.

These awards recognise and celebrate the BAME entrepreneurs who are diversifying the UK’s start-up landscape.

Born Maverick, a highly successful food innovation company, brings together Azhar’s ideas to combine food, health and ethics leading to the creation of healthy food products in a caring and sustainable manner, for the earth and its people.

Having one of our own recognised as one of the UK’s top entrepreneurs is a big coup for Northern Ireland, and Invest NI has worked closely with Azhar as he developed his business over the past five years.

Having impressed Invest NI at their Food & Drink Consumer Insights Market Intelligence Clinic by sharing his ideas, he was introduced to Campden BRI, a top UK food research & development facility. By working with state-of-the-art R&D facilities, Azhar was able to accelerate his project and secure partnerships with other top UK technical organisations.

Invest NI has gone on to provide support to Born Maverick through the Innovation Vouchers Programme. The company has successfully used Innovation Vouchers to engage some of the best knowledge providers to help develop and test his products, providing a significant boost to the product development process.

These vouchers have helped validate several of Azhar’s ideas. One such example is creating a drink that is a combination of a smoothie and an energy drink which would target consumers leading healthy lifestyles.

Another of the company’s forward-thinking projects which benefitted from the Innovation Voucher Programme was the development of dairy-free and gluten-free vegan ice lollies.

Azhar is currently working with College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) to develop and test plant-based egg alternatives by analysing comparative base ingredients which can serve as an egg replacement. This work is also being funded through the Innovation Voucher Programme.

Key to Born Maverick’s success is its strong relationship with Innovate UK EDGE; this is an arm of the UK Government’s lead innovation agency Innovate UK. Invest NI is fortunate to have an Innovate UK EDGE team based internally which is dedicated to supporting innovation-driven companies from Northern Ireland to grow at pace and achieve their industry and society transforming ambitions.

The Innovate UK EDGE team in Invest NI has helped Born Maverick secure funding from Innovate UK as well as introducing them to European manufacturers. For example, their advisors helped the company to collaborate with a Swiss partner to produce a non-dairy milk and an Italian partner to develop an adaptogen ice lolly in 2020.

In November 2020, Azhar won £69,000 from Innovate UK’s Sustainable Innovation Fund to support the research and development of their idea to create a prawn and scallop from seaweed. This ‘food-ovation’ was the project that catapulted Born Maverick into TechRound’s line of vision.

The following year, in 2021, Born Maverick was accepted for Innovate UK’s flagship Global Incubation Programme to Asia/Singapore, providing international networking and collaboration opportunities. More recently, Innovate UK named Born Maverick as one of the UK’s 12 most impactful high growth start-ups, awarding it a coveted place on IUK’s Strategic Impact Investment Programme.

Azhar said: “I believe that key to Born Maverick’s recognition across different countries is our expertise in assessing sustainable food chain and then coming up with unique solutions ranging from meat/dairy substitutes to alternative proteins.

“We reflect modern lifestyle choices in our products, and I intend to continue to evolve and innovate to play a leading role in helping to shape the food industry of the future.”

Invest NI is delighted to continue working with companies like Born Maverick and hope more innovative healthy and nutritious food products come to market in 2023.