International Women's Day: Planet Friendly Paint founder Ameenah Begum is one of the winners for the Innovate UK’s Women in Innovation Awards

Ameenah Begum, 27, is the founder of Planet Friendly Paint which takes old makeup and transforms it into sustainable watercolour paints which are then sold on.

Innovate UK’s Women in Innovation programme is now in its sixth year and saw 920 people apply this year, all of whom were putting their business forward in a bid to secure a £50,000 grant, one-to-one business coaching, and networking opportunities.

The Women in Innovation Awards is a key part of Innovate UK’s commitment to boosting the number of female entrepreneurs and aim to support high-potential women business leaders from diverse backgrounds.

Ameenah said that she is ‘incredibly grateful’ for the opportunity to expand her business and watch it grow.

She said: ‘I feel incredibly privileged to have won this Innovate UK Award and it fills me with confidence for the future. It’s come at a critical time for me to re-strategise and make my vision tangible. Now is the time for sustainable innovation to really flourish – before it’s too late.

‘I feel like it was much needed for where I see my business going, I have always been quite ambitious for what I want my business to achieve. So to have found out that I have got this award is incredible. I am incredibly grateful to have been given the opportunity to develop my business in a way which will really benefit it.’

The business currently uses donations of old makeup from the general public and then Ameenah breaks the pigment down and turns them into watercolours.

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She is hoping to get larger corporate companies on board with her mission in a bid to provide sustainable paints and she wants to be able to work closely with the bigger brands to try and encourage the prevention of waste.

Emily Nott, head of equality, diversity and inclusion programmes at Innovate UK said: ‘Each year I am blown away by the brilliant ideas and talent we uncover through our Women in Innovation programme. Despite these challenging economic times, this year’s winners have shown great leadership, passion and resilience in driving their innovations forward.’

Ameenah added: ‘I'm passionate about the way we choose to treat our planet and I want to encourage people to make more conscious decisions in their purchasing habits.

‘It was an award that you had to apply for and explain your whole business plan and the trajectory of it and to know there were over 900 applicants and I have been successful is just amazing.

‘At the moment most of our donations have come from the public but what I am trying to do with this award in particular is have a diversified supply chain so it is not just coming from the general public.’