Starting May 1st, ClimateLaunchpad welcomed applications from Barbados for the 2019 edition of the world’s largest green business ideas competition. The local competition will be executed by local lead – the Barbados Investment Development Corporation (BIDC) in partnership with the Caribbean Climate Innovation Center (CCIC), which is being funded by the Inter-Americam Development Bank (IDB). The programme is part of the entrepreneurship offerings by EIT Climate-KIC, the European Union’s innovation program for climate change.
The competition seeks to unlock the world’s cleantech potential that addresses climate change, creating a stage for those ideas to be grown into global businesses. Applications for Barbados will close on June 28, 2019. Innovations in renewable energy, energy efficiency, food and agriculture, water, transportation, industrial technology or any other way to tackle climate change are all welcomed.
Selected participants will start off their rigorous training with an intensive 2-day Boot Camp on July 11-12, 2019 at the BIDC’s Bagnall’s Point Gallery, Pelican Center. The Boot Camp will be followed by intensive coaching sessions, leading up to a National Final on August 23, 2019. The top-2 of all competing countries will battle in the Global Grand Final in November 2019, hosted in The Netherlands. The world’s top-10 best ideas win access to a regional accelerator program. The overall winner of the Global Grand Final also receives a cash prize of €10,000; the runner up gets €5,000 and the team that comes in third place wins €2,500. All Finalists in the Global Grand Final have the chance to be further accelerated in Europe’s Climate-KIC Accelerator to further grow and expand their start-up idea.
Frans Nauta, ClimateLaunchpad founder said of the Climate Launchpad competion: “A green business school in disguise, that is how former participants refer to our competition. We train people with green ideas to become successful entrepreneurs. Since the start in 2014 we already helped 1,500 teams on their way with setting up their global businesses. This year we will run the programme in at least 50 countries. We know climate change is solvable. We also know there will not be one single cure, we need – and there will be – thousands of big and small cures. That is why it is our mission to fix climate change, one start-up at a time.”
As sponsors and local lead for the Climate Launchpad competition in Barbados, CEO of the BIDC, Sonja Trotman, noted that “This collaboration with Climate Launchpad presents an opportunity for Barbadian ideators to share and develop their solutions on an international platform, with international financial and accelerator backing to bring those ideas to fruition. As Barbadians, our attention to climate change is critical given our location and the challenges that can and do affect us. We have faced challenges relative to the management of our water resources, waste, coastal zones and energy resources. We face increased threats in this era of super storms and changing weather patterns. These challenges can fuel innovation as we create solutions that can help us and others alike. This is a call to action for entrepreneurs, innovators and young people to create the solutions we need that can help us better cope with or even mitigate the effects of climate change.”
ClimateLaunchpad is part of the Entrepreneurship offerings of EIT Climate-KIC, the EU’s main climate innovation initiative. Over 100 partners, such as Accenture, Benard Schulte Shipmanagement, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Hellenic Bank, Microsoft, PWC, Sparebank, Volvo and World Wide Fund, support the competition.
“It is this kind of investment of time and energy that Climate-KIC is for. ClimateLaunchpad is a space for converting passion to action.” – Kirsten Dunlop, CEO Climate-KIC.
“I attended several other competitions before, but here we got the biggest win. Going through the competition changed my mind on where to focus to create the biggest impact.” – Osman Baytaroğlu, Founder of Agrovisio, a 2017 participant.
Information about ClimateLaunchpad, how to enter the competition and updates are available at www.climatelaunchpad.org (#clp19)
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Infographic: ClimateLaunchpad over the years