Reinventing water treatment for a more sustainable future. Challenge accepted.
When Dr Seb Leaper began his PhD at The University of Manchester, he didn’t expect to become an entrepreneur. But after discovering how waste water could hold the key to both cleaner water and a more sustainable planet, he founded Watercycle Technologies - a climate tech company turning waste into worth.
Backed by philanthropic support through the Eli and Britt Harari Graphene Enterprise Award, Seb is tackling the global water crisis head-on, proving that with the right support, bold ideas can change the world. Challenge accepted.
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Dr Seb Leaper is CEO of Watercycle Technologies, a Manchester-based climate tech startup tackling one of the planet’s biggest challenges: water scarcity. The company specialises in extracting valuable minerals from waste water, while creating sustainable sources of fresh water.
A University of Manchester alumnus, Seb began this journey during his PhD in Chemical Engineering, when he entered and won the Eli and Britt Harari Graphene Enterprise Award in his first year.
Seb initially set out to focus his PhD on renewable energy, but a project in water treatment caught his attention and changed everything. Despite knowing little about the field, he was fascinated, and determined to understand it. Through his research, he discovered how deeply minerals and water are connected.
Water, he realised, is one of the world’s most precious and threatened resources. When Seb began his PhD, one in three people experienced severe water scarcity for at least one month a year. That number has since risen to one in two. He also saw that water plays a crucial role in developing low-carbon technologies, making it a key part of creating sustainable, circular systems.
With that insight, Seb and his co-founder, Dr Ahmed Abdelkarim, decided to take on the challenge. Using their knowledge and skills, they built solutions to address major issues in water treatment, mineral production and recycling. It was while investigating existing water treatment technologies that Seb had a breakthrough.
Traditional processes can produce fresh water, but they also generate waste water containing harmful byproducts. Some of those byproducts, however, are minerals - valuable ones. If extracted, the profits from selling those minerals could help subsidise the cost of producing clean water.
This flipped the economics of water treatment on its head. By viewing waste water as a resource rather than a problem, Watercycle developed a model where waste becomes value, and clean water becomes affordable, even free.
Winning the Eli and Britt Harari Graphene Enterprise Award was the catalyst that turned Seb’s idea into reality. Founded by fellow Manchester alumnus and SanDisk co-founder Eli Harari, the award supports innovators in material science to transform their research into impact.
For Seb and Ahmed, the £50,000 in seed funding made all the difference. Unlike many startups, theirs needed lab space, hardware and specialist equipment, all costly essentials. The award allowed them to build the foundations of Watercycle Technologies, grow into a 14-person team and bring their vision to life. Seb credits philanthropy as the reason his company exists.
Beyond the funding itself, Seb believes philanthropy’s real power lies in the opportunities it creates for personal growth. It’s something he hopes to pay forward in the future, as Watercycle continues to thrive.
Since winning the award, Watercycle has secured further investment and proven its impact, scaling up its technology to pilot level and moving toward commercial systems. The company’s mission has evolved, but the purpose remains the same - to build a sustainable future where clean water and valuable resources coexist.
Seb and Ahmed have built a diverse, skilled team united by the same goal: to use innovation for good. Together, they’re proving that with curiosity, creativity and courage, even the toughest challenges can be turned into opportunities.
For Seb, that’s what being a Challenge Accepter is all about.
Your support helps bold thinkers like Seb turn ideas into impact.