The Roots of Matter

A childhood in Essex. A degree in Mechanical Engineering . A determination to make the world a better place for generations to come.

To explain the story of Matter, we must first delve into the technical story of our CEO and founder, Adam Root, who during his education had trained as a toolmaker, and obtained a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Kingston Upon Thames University.

But what are the origins of Matter?

Leaving education, Adam started work as a graduate at Dyson, where he developed his experience in operations and high-volume manufacturing. At this point, Adam was aware of the lack of product and materials circularity within the industry and was building his own determination to seek employment at a company that was working towards bettering the environment.

Adam left his role as Senior Design Engineer, and spent some time travelling with his wife, Becky. The adventurous pair were keen to appreciate the natural world and cycled from Burgen to Oslo.

As a keen scuba diver, Adam had already grown an acute awareness of the plastic pollution problem, understanding the detrimental effects on the environment, specifically within our oceans. After satisfying their appetite for exploration, Adam and Becky decided to set up Oishii Yataii together.

Oishii Yatai was a not-for-profit, Japanese Street Food business with the literal translation, Delicious Food Stall. With their passion to conserve the environment for future generations, Adam and Becky donated the money raised from Oishii Yatai towards clean ocean projects, as well as pursuing other part-time paid work to support themselves; Adam was continuing to put his engineering expertise into action, working as a consultant, whilst Becky flourished creatively, freelancing as a graphic designer.

But the issue remained. 171 trillion microplastic particles smothering our oceans and counting.

With no luck in his search for employment with a business who were actively looking to find a solution to this global challenge, Adam set about using his own technical engineering experience to combat the problem. Adams attended a 5-day business course run by the Prince's Trust, where he secured a £250 ‘Will it Work’ grant; this money was used to build his first prototype.

For the next 9 months, Adam worked tirelessly, using his mother-in-law's dining table as his workspace. Alongside this, Adam was continuing his work as a consultant, and Oishii Yatai had grown to 8 staff, serving 450 meals a day.

Throughout this process, Adam maintained his determination and passion to create an ocean plastic prevention company in order to address the microplastic pollution problem. Applying for a grant through the Young Innovators Programme, Adam won, and went on to become Young Innovator of the Year in 2018. In the same year Adam also represented the UK for a youth round table at the G7 Summit in Canada.

Using the money he had secured through the Young Innovators Programme, Adam moved the business to a unit on a turkey farm, before deciding to move the company West, out of Essex, and into Future Space, Bristol.

Adam and Becky decided to make the company official, christening it Inheriting Earth Limited, the name stemming from the concept that the next generation will inherit the planet, so we must act now to protect their futures.

2018 became a monumental year in the company's growth, as Adam secured a six figure grant with Beko, allowing the first employee to be hired. Adam also had the opportunity to pitch to Sky Ocean Ventures- a pitch that was successful and secured the funds to begin growing and evolving the business.

In 2019, Adam won the title of Young Innovator of the Year for the second year running, and with around 10 employees, the business entered a new phase, focusing on building our retrofit solution, Gulp.

Newly christened Matter in 2019, the business continues to grow. Since then, we have moved to Matter HQ, our own home. We continue to dedicate our time, energy, and resources to putting a stop to the bleed of microplastics into our natural environment.

We will become the hard line between the biological and technical cycles, and we will do our best to create a world without micropollutants in our natural environment.

This is the first chapter of our story. These are our roots.