What makes cleantech start-ups roll? Learnings from the winners of 2023

Every winner of this green competition entered the contest with just one great cleantech idea and lots (lots!) of drive. The trick is to transform these ingredients into a thriving start-up. To help you do the same, the winners of the Regional Finals 2023 share with you their biggest learnings. Charish your passion “Having passion… Read more »

Tales and Tips from the Winner’s Circle #1 MABE Bio

As this year’s cohort prepares to pitch at the Regional Finals, we catch up with last year’s winners. Read on to see how they’ve progressed, what they’ve learned, and their golden tip for aspiring entrepreneurs. Marina Belintani – MABE Bio, Brazil MABE Bio combines nature and technology to create materials. They reinvent the leather production… Read more »

Tales and Tips from the Winner’s Circle #2 WAGA

As this year’s cohort prepares to pitch at the Regional Finals, we catch up with last year’s winners. Read on to see how they’ve progressed, what they’ve learned, and their golden tip for aspiring entrepreneurs. Gibson Kawago, WAGA – Tanzania WAGA repurposes used lithium-ion batteries to create battery packs for rural households and businesses. The… Read more »

Tales and Tips from the Winner’s Circle #3 Divea (formerly 2D Membranes)

As this year’s cohort prepares to pitch at the Regional Finals, we catch up with last year’s winners. Read on to see how they’ve progressed, what they’ve learned, and their golden tip for aspiring entrepreneurs. Mojtaba Rezaei, Divea (formerly 2D Membranes), Switzerland With their carbon capture technology, Divea targets the biggest industrial CO2 emitters, such… Read more »

What if green were the easy option?

Linking consumers to sustainable businesses There is no lack of ambition with 2019 ClimateLaunchpad participant Greener: they want to ‘repair the planet with every dollar you spend’. Since joining ClimateLaunchpad they were supported by Mirvac Impact Accelerator, ran a successful pilot demonstrating they can bring greener businesses a market share uplift of 5-20%, helped their… Read more »

Bloom is booming

Trailblazing tech turns biomass into petroleum alternative Their mission is crystal clear. They want to provide solutions that drive the transition from linear fossil-resources to circular, plant-based models. The ground-breaking and patented technology of 2018 ClimateLaunchpad participant Bloom creates chemicals and fuels from plant material. With their biorefining solutions they are able to manufacture a… Read more »

Zhana Solutions

Reusing grease from industrial wastewater to make biodiesel. (But that’s not all.) Environmental tech developers for the industry; that is how they describe themselves. As such, former participant Zhana Solutions focuses on water management. One of the things they successfully developed is a patented electrochemical method to treat industrial wastewater more efficiently than conventional installations…. Read more »

Multus Media

Enabling competitive prices for high quality cultivated meat Multus Media is one of our 2019 award winning participants. They didn’t lose any momentum and aim to have their first product ready by autumn 2020. What they do? They enable the cultivated meat industry to flourish by developing next generation low-cost growth media for animal cells…. Read more »

Rens

In 2017 a chance encounter in a Starbucks between two expat sneakerheads quickly turns into a discussion on fashion and its impact on the environment. An idea is formed: make the perfect sustainable sneaker.

Iron Roots

2017 Finalist Iron Roots is definitely on a roll. What they do? They found a way to run all plastics out of sports apparel. In 2018 they opened up their own online store and their products are also for sale in several (physical) stores.

UFraction8

We spoke with Monika Tomecka, UFraction8’s Executive Director to catch up on recent events: “Since the 2017 Global Grand Final we received quite a few grants and several awards.

ClimateLaunchpad India

ClimateLaunchpad India is running in 4 states and looking to expand. An interview with Pratap Raju, the guy behind this success.

The Nu Wardrobe is reducing waste with their clothes-sharing platform

The alternative to fast fashion. Online clothes-sharing platform The Nu wardrobe provides users with a constantly changing wardrobe that’s convenient and inexpensive. They extend the lifecycle of clothes and significantly reduce waste. The Nu Wardrobe was in our competition in 2017. As we like to stay up to speed with former participants, we recently had… Read more »

Agrovisio

2017 finalist Agrovisio is on the fast track. They already have paying customers and their revenue forecast for 2018 is $ 500,000.

Alkagel Ltd.

Alkagel won our 2017 Global Grand Final with their liquid bio fuel. Since then the Kenyan start-up has not wasted any time and used the momentum to kick-start their business. What they do?

Moyee Coffee

We were on the phone for an interview with former ClimateLaunchpad participant Killian Stokes from Moyee Coffee about their coffee business.

Capricorn Power

Big things are happening for our 2017 finalist Capricorn Power. Not only did they just close a major seed round and obtained a $300,000 government grant, also their revenue forecast for 2018/19 is a whopping $3.3 million.

Sympower

To say that our 2015 ClimateLaunchpad Finalist Sympower is doing well would be the understatement of the year. In 2017 they raised €1M from Enfuro Ventures and Angel Investors.

The energy saving reporting platform.

After participating in ClimateLaunchpad, Positive Energy enrolled in an accelerator programme in Berlin. Since then, things have been moving at high speed for the Turkey based start-up.

Brill Power’s breakthrough batteries

2015 Finalist Brill Power (formerly known as ionQube) is going strong. During the competition they scored high points with our jury because of their innovative energy storage technology for batteries.

Delft IMP. Highly efficient catalysts.

Delft IMP came in second during the 2015 Dutch National Final and finished in the Top-10 at the Grand Final. What they do? They figured out how to produce highly efficient catalysts, a technology that enables the transition from an oil­based economy to a bio­based economy.

Cambond and their game-changing green glue

Cambridge based Cambond won third place in ClimateLaunchpad’s 2014 Grand Final with their formaldehyde-free glue from biomass. It is used to make wood panels like MDF or plywood, a $500 billion a year industry.

Reverse Resources. Circular fashion.

ClimateLaunchpad finalist Reverse Resources won third prize in the 2015 National Final in Estonia and won entry into the Climate-KIC accelerator during our Grand Final. Soon afterwards they landed a €150k grant in the Global Change Award. Currently they’re running pilot projects with famous global fashion brands.

Desert Control Keeps On Improving

“We know you’re cheating,” the Desert Control team was told. The results seemed scientifically impossible. Ole Olesen told ClimateLaunchpad.

“We had the same results as good American farm soil, in the Sinai. We ourselves didn’t even know what was causing such great results.”

Update: What’s happening at Cambond?

We tracked down Gareth Robert, one of the founders of Cambond. This venture came in 3rd in 2014’s European Final. A lot has happened since then, Cambond is aiming to sell their first products by the end of May 2015. We interviewed him about his winning idea and what has been going on since that… Read more »

2014’s winner Wavetube, an update

Sara West and Alexander Torstenfeldt were 2014’s ClimateLaunchpad European winners with their venture Wavetube. They’ve joined the Climate-KIC Accelerator programme and are in the midst of accelerating their development. We wanted to know how they are doing and interviewed Sara. Tell us about Wavetube, what is it? ‘Wavetube develops a unique solution to harness ocean… Read more »

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