The prize was presented on 2 April during the meeting of Börssällskapet at the Swedish Exhibition & Congress Centre in front of a capacity audience. A silver Gothenburg statuette and a cheque for SEK 25,000 were presented by the Chair of Gothenburg City Executive Board, Axel Josefson, and Göteborg & Co’s Trade and Industry Group. The winner of the Gothenburg Company Prize 2018 is I-Tech, a biotech company that has developed a sustainable method for preventing barnacles from settling on vessel hulls.

“In a country with so many exciting and promising companies, we feel very humbled to be winner of the Gothenburg Company Prize. I-Tech, a company born out of local academic research and largely backed by local financiers, is at the centre of a global expansion of the marine sector which is so important to Gothenburg. We share this honour with everyone who has been part of our almost 20-year journey,” says Philip Chaabane, CEO, I-Tech.

I-Tech was founded in 2000 and is a spin-off from research at the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology. It is a research-intensive company that applies biotechnology to one of the maritime industry’s major problems, barnacle settlement. I-Tech’s product Selektope is a substance that is added to marine coatings to prevent barnacles from fouling vessel hulls. Selektope is unique in being the world’s only marine anti-fouling agent that does not kill barnacles.

Facts about the Gothenburg Company Prize:

• Every year Göteborg & Co’s Trade and Industry Group awards the Gothenburg Company Prize to successful companies that are run and developed in the Gothenburg region.
• The prize consists of SEK 25,000 and a silver statuette.
• Since it was established in 1994 the Gothenburg Company Prize has been awarded to around 60 companies.

Göteborg & Co’s Trade and Industry Group is a platform for collaboration between trade & industry, organisations, municipal administrations and academia, and is aimed at making Gothenburg even more competitive and attractive. The Trade and Industry Group uses initiatives and projects to stimulate inclusivity and long-term skills provision, in order to contribute to an attractive, dynamic and sustainable metropolitan region.