The winner of the 2018 Prize is I-Tech, a biotech company that has developed a sustainable method for preventing barnacles from settling on vessel hulls. The Prize will be presented by Göteborg & Co’s Trade and Industry Group and the Chair of Gothenburg City Executive Board, Axel Josefson, on 2 April during the meeting of Börssällskapet.

– This year’s winner is a company that has demonstrated impressive entrepreneurship and innovation. Through innovative research it has changed its industry and is now at the cutting edge of development. I-Tech has a unique, sustainable and world-leading product, says Kristin Mari Riera, project manager, Göteborg & Co’s Trade and Industry Group.

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.

– 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.