Investor Overview — Prepared by Sean McNeill, Founder & CEO
Next-generation feedstock for energy, fuel & chemicals.
Zenco Group cultivates seaweed in the open ocean, pelletises it into a proprietary densified feedstock, and converts it into biomethane, biochemicals and synthetic fuel — all compatible with today's grids, pipelines and vehicles. Grown, not extracted.
The Problem
Europe has to buy renewable energy and fuel that doesn't exist yet.
Waste-based biofuels don't scale
Supply is limited and contested, and the byproduct is largely unusable.
Feedstock is unreliable
Crop and waste inputs face quality and supply issues; food-crop competition undercuts energy-crop economics.
Existing infrastructure is underused
Gas networks and forecourts are scalable routes that current biofuel models fail to exploit.
Our Solution
Grown, Not Extracted.
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1
Maximises value per tonne
Converts into biomethane and drop-in fuels, with biochemicals as the primary value driver.
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2
Regenerative feedstock at scale
Seaweed captures CO₂ and cleans water, grown globally and pelletised into a high-energy fuel.
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3
Instant deployment
Drop-in biomethane and biofuel compatible with today's grids, pipelines and vehicles — no retrofit, no green premium.
The Platform
One marine crop. Multiple energy products.
Six stages, three OpCos — cultivation to renewable gas, fuel and chemicals.
Seafarm Cultivation
Cultivated Ulva spp. seaweed, grown at scale, cleaning water and capturing CO₂ as it grows — no arable land or freshwater used.
Drying & Pelletising
Seaweed and sorghum blended, dried and compressed into the Zenco Seaweed Pellet — MVP produced, methane yields proven.
Conversion & Refining
Anaerobic digestion converts pellets to biomethane and biochemicals. Captured CO₂ and cleaned digestate become drop-in fuel via Fischer-Tropsch.
Why Seaweed Wins
Competitive with conventional energy crops — without their trade-offs.
Competitive yield, zero land footprint
Cultivated kelp shows methane yields up to ~365 GJ/ha/yr — within the top end of maize silage's range, without using a single hectare of arable land.
No freshwater irrigation
Ulva spp. is grown and rinsed in seawater, unlike conventional energy crops that compete with drinking water demand.
No food-vs-fuel trade-off
Offshore cultivation doesn't displace food production or push farmers onto marginal land.
RED III / ISCC aligned
Offshore cultivation structurally satisfies GHG savings, land-use and traceability criteria under RED III methodology.
Sources: peer-reviewed AD trial data on cultivated kelp (ScienceDirect, 2020) and published maize AD yield ranges (MDPI review, 2018). Zenco's own Ulva-based methane yields are being established through its certified lab trial programme.
Traction
What's real today.
Certified lab trials complete
Methane output and digestate value proven; MVP of the Zenco Seaweed Pellet produced.
Signed Gas Purchase Agreement
SmartestEnergy, a Marubeni Corporation subsidiary — minimum €29m/yr, inflation-linked, with a 5-year renewal option.
Heads of Terms with Centrica
British Gas Trading, for biomethane and certificates on Phase 2 of gas production.
Expressions of interest
Vattenfall and other European biogas producers, for feedstock supply.
Accepted onto Rising UP in Spain
Zenco Group SL becomes the Spain TopCo, with legal, mentorship and soft-landing support.
European grant support engaged
EIC Accelerator application progressing to help fund IP development and platform scaling.
Market Opportunity
A supply-constrained, mandate-backed market.
Regulatory demand for renewable gas and fuel is fixed by law — EU RED III and RePowerEU set binding procurement targets. The constraint industry-wide is feedstock supply, not demand.
Flagship Asset
Project Keystone, Able Humber.
Flagship AD facility in active early-stage development — progressing through pre-FEED and SPV-level fundraising, with strong local and infrastructure backing from North Lincolnshire Council and Cadent, the regional gas DNO.
Portfolio
Eight identified sites, one platform template.
EU & UK Track
MENA & Africa Track
Value Creation
Path to ~€1bn asset value by 2031.
Leadership
The team delivering this.
Sean McNeill
Founder & CEOBusiness leader and entrepreneur with over 10 years as CEO in the sustainability sector. Proven track record raising equity capital and securing large-scale project contracts.
LinkedIn ↗
Alina Donets
Co-Founder & CIO14 years' sustainability investing at Lombard Odier, Allianz Global Investors and Pictet. Scaled fund AUM from $400m to $1bn in 16 months. MSc HEC Paris, CFA charterholder.
LinkedIn ↗
Carl Mook
Chief Operations Officer30 years' leadership delivering complex technical solutions across oil & gas upstream, midstream and downstream.
LinkedIn ↗
Shaun Stapleton
Chief Development Officer30 years in UK construction; 15 years around land and planning, owning the route to smooth licensing and Ready-to-Build status.
LinkedIn ↗
Celine McAnenly
Chief Finance OfficerChartered Management Accountant (FCMA) with 30+ years' board-level experience across global multinationals and scale-ups.
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Becki Jarvis MSc
Chief Science OfficerMarine biologist focused on sustainable aquaculture. Former Warrant Officer at the UK Marine Management Organisation; leads Zenco's marine crop strategy.
LinkedIn ↗Governance
Advisory Board
Paul Hetherington
Advisory Board & Angel InvestorLong-time CEO and Board Chair across government-owned organisations in the UK.
LinkedIn ↗
Lord Darren Mott OBE
Advisory Board MemberFormer CEO of the Conservative Party and a Member of the House of Lords.
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Rich Harland
Advisory Board MemberInvestor and strategic advisor across impact investing, clean energy and technology.
LinkedIn ↗
Gabriela Sanchez
Chief Legal Officer15 years at the intersection of marine fuels, energy transition and energy regulation. Led USD 1bn+ financings, chaired Compliance Committees, and co-founded a renewable energy company developing solar and battery storage projects.
LinkedIn ↗
ESG & SDG Goals
Grown, drop-in fuels at price parity.
Zenco replaces extracted oil and gas with grown, drop-in fuels that run on the same infrastructure at price parity — while pulling CO₂ from the air and ocean.
SDG 7 & 13 — Clean Energy + Climate
Drop-in RNG and renewable eFuels displace fossil fuels with no infrastructure change.
SDG 12, 14 & 15 — Circularity + Oceans
Uses marine biomass and converts residues into biochemicals, avoiding land/food-crop competition.
Governance + Risk
Bankable long-term offtakes, hedged downside, and a compliance-led approach to standards.
Risk Considerations
What a rigorous investor should weigh.
These considerations will be addressed as part of investment conditions.
Site control & consenting
Marine concessions and land/planning consent are not yet secured at every site; timelines vary materially by jurisdiction.
Feedstock supply timing
Cultivation capacity must scale ahead of or alongside Bioenergy hub demand; a shortfall would require purchased biomass at lower margin.
First-of-kind execution
Construction and commissioning risk on early hubs, including grid connection and certificate scheme qualification.
Commodity & certificate pricing
Returns are sensitive to wholesale gas, certificate and fertiliser gate prices, and shipping cost between sites.
Template vs. site-specific economics
Pipeline sites are costed on the Bioenergy/Seafarm templates pending their own FEED studies and may vary once site-specific.
The Ask
€1.75m today — the single step into a €300m+ programme.
Zenco is raising €1.75m into Zenco Group SL via a priced equity round, funding the platform to commercial readiness in a single close — ahead of a wider institutional project-finance raise. Full valuation and terms are set out in the term sheet — ask us for the details.
Request the term sheetUse of funds
Working capital & IP — €300k
IP registration and pellet formulation optimisation, taking the feedstock from TRL5 to TRL7.
EIC match funding — €770k
Applicant contribution against the EIC Accelerator grant, taking the IP from TRL7 to TRL9.
Site readiness — €680k
Planning amendments, legal fees and remaining work to bring the Humber site to Ready-to-Build.
Let's Talk
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