Althea Creative founder Meets With MP Saqib Bhatti to Raise Questions Over founder-led business support and the UK job market
By Lizzie Ingram, Founder of Althea Creative
Image source: Unsplash
In December 2025, I was among approximately 60 employees made redundant following the sudden collapse of Petalite, a West Midlands–based electric vehicle charging technology company that was set to change the way we charge EVs through innovative rapid charging technology.
It collapsed overnight. I had six hours’ notice, in the middle of making my children’s dinner, holding back tears while picking up rogue peas off the floor. I’d spent nearly five years building its brand, I felt that brand, and its sudden closure hit me, and founding colleagues, quite hard. Dozens of skilled engineers and business teams were left without roles, raising serious questions about how the UK protects its clean‑tech pioneers.
At the time of its collapse, the company had developed patented rapid DC charging technology designed to tackle one of the biggest barriers to electric vehicle adoption - the essential need for rapid DC chargers to be plentiful and reliable. Petalite had secured a partnership from a major UK charge point operator. Petalite was not a failing business.
Caught between development and commercialisation
The insolvency followed the withdrawal of a planned second funding round by a US-based investor, which reportedly shifted its focus back to fossil fuels. With the investor pullout, Petalite faced a sharply accelerated timeline to secure alternative funding in order to commercialise its technology, a goal that was realistically unattainable within the limited six week window.
Unlike its early start-up R&D phase, when government support might have been available, the company had not yet launched chargers in the field for public use. The withdrawal left Petalite in a vulnerable limbo, caught between its R&D stage and pre-revenue commercialisation stage.
Meeting with MP Saqib Bhatti
On February 6th 2026, I met with my local Conservative MP, Saqib Bhatti, to raise these issues directly. I outlined not only the loss of skilled employment, but also the wider implications for the UK’s clean-tech sector and its future, global competitiveness.
For founder-led companies with proprietary technology, I made the point that what happened to Petalite serves as a stark warning to clean-tech founders and SMEs: in the event of a collapse, a foreign competitor could acquire it, raising serious concerns about the protection of UK-developed innovation.
The discussion concluded with a commitment to raise the Petalite case with the Department for Transport. I will hopefully be able to provide a new update soon.
the UK job market and the up-hill battle to find employment
During the discussion, I also addressed the realities of the UK job market, an issue I have previously explored in my published thought leadership on job hunting. The experience of redundancy has exposed how fragile employment pathways are, even for highly skilled professionals, and how quickly UK innovation can be lost. There is also the battle with AI too. You can read my thought leadership article here
For Petalite’s employees, the impact was immediate with many facing very real challenges finding a job. I wish every one of them the best, they are amazing, skilled people.
For UK clean-tech, the implications are likely to be far-reaching.
Outcome
This experience quietly reshaped my ambition. It reminded me why supporting new businesses matters so deeply to me.
Althea Creative exists because the Petalite story couldn’t simply end — the lessons, the care, and the brand strategy skills I gained there now live on through the next founders I support.
