Climate-KIC: Europe’s most innovative cleantech start-ups compete for €65K in Valencia
Eighteen of Europe’s most innovative cleantech start-ups have been shortlisted by Climate-KIC to compete in the European finals of the Venture Competition 2014, on 30 and 31 October in Valencia, Spain.
A jury of experienced entrepreneurs, financiers and business people will be looking for the next generation of disruptive scalable clean technologies and services with the potential to make a substantial impact. The three winners will receive a total of €65,000 in funding to further develop their ventures.
The finalists, who represent 10 countries across Europe, include: PlugSurfing, an app to facilitate the mass adoption of electric vehicles; Reduse, a new technology that removes printer ink from paper so it can be reused multiple times; GrowUp Urban Farms, an aquaculture and hydroponics system that supports sustainable farms in urban environments; and ReVibe, a new technology that transforms vibrations into electricity.
The finalists have already been awarded a total of €360,000 in Climate-KIC regional competitions across Europe to accelerate the development of their ventures.
“The Venture Competition is designed to spur innovation by giving the cleantech start-ups of the future the funding and support they need to succeed commercially, said Prins, “This is the fourth year of our competition and our previous winners have gone on to achieve considerable commercial success – tadoº, a winner in 2012, recently raised €10 million in VC funding and is now rapidly extending the roll out of its intelligent home heating service around the world.”
Accelerator success
Prins added: “That is just one example, but our success in promoting Europe’s brightest cleantech ventures is demonstrated by the recent announcement that our unique Accelerator has helped 45 start-ups collectively raise €59 million in external funding. Our Accelerator is now supporting over 120 start-ups every year and the Venture Competition will be showcasing the brightest prospects currently in our programme.”
The winners of the 2013 Venture Competition were Switzerland-based OsmoBlue, developers of a patented technology to convert low-temperature waste heat into energy. Last year’s runners up were Dutch start-up Pectcof, that promises to unlock the potential of coffee pulp as a source of bio-based materials, and Aqdot, a UK-based company that allows for a hyper-efficient way of manufacturing microcapsules for the household, personal care and agrochemical industries, leading to lower energy consumption and less waste.
Innovation Festival
The competition forms part of Climate-KIC’s annual Innovation Festival, which takes place from 29th-31st October in Valencia and brings together Climate-KIC partners, students and entrepreneurs, as well as European policy makers and business market leaders in order to develop and commercialise innovative climate change products and services.
Visit the Venture Competition pages to show your support for the start-ups by sharing their profiles on social media!
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