Climate-KIC Switzerland selects four new start-ups

Climate-KIC Switzerland is happy to announce that it has accepted four new start-ups into its acceleration programme.

Captain Plant not only convinced the jury with their tasty burgers, but also with their business model to bring vegetarian fast food to non-vegetarians. By changing eating behaviours, CO2 output can be reduced by approximately 15 per cent.

New Life for Used Windows was awarded for bringing their low-tech but high impact business idea of replacing windows in Eastern European countries with windows from Switzerland and Western Europe. The plan is to replace windows with a U-factor or value of 5 and above with windows with a U-factor of around 2, and bring about a transformation in the built environment.

Solarfreeze convinced the jury with their concept for solar powered cooling systems, focusing on markets in tropical countries.

iFarmReal connects virtual reality with down-to-earth farming. The start-up takes a gaming approach to food shopping and provides people with more seasonal and regional foods.

Open innovation

All four projects had been submitted through an open innovation platform – they surfaced among 41 ideas which had received almost 600 online comments.

In Switzerland, Climate-KIC’s Acceleration Programme is managed through innovate4climate, a joint initiative by Climate-KIC and its affiliate partners, WWF Schweiz and Hub Zurich.