Accra, 20th August 2021. Nael Fibre Accessories, WorldTech Consult, and Modcoal, are the winners of the ClimateLaunchpad national final competition in Ghana organized by the Ghana Climate Innovation Centre. The competition is supported by the Climate-KIC International Foundation and German Development Cooperation to accelerate climate tech solutions for a net-zero Africa. The winning teams will advance to the ClimateLaunchpad Regional Finals next month in Mozambique.
Dr. Kirsten Dunlop, CEO of EIT Climate-KIC commented:
“ClimateLaunchpad is now taking on the dimensions of a global movement, and we see that in the quality of what’s coming through and the extent to which people are building on the shoulders of what’s gone before, learning from each other, and picking up where the biggest needs are and what we need to address.
“All of the participants are winners in their own right and represent the next generation of green leaders in the world. ClimateLaunchpad is in many ways a development programme that connects these brilliant minds and their solutions on an international stage. The exposure for the businesses and the teachings they absorb throughout the process help equip them for leadership in their own countries and communities.”
Three winners from each country will be competing in the African Regional Finals on 21 September in Mozambique, where a total of 18 teams from Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Zambia and Rwanda will have a chance to compete at the Grand Finals.
Thanks to the national leads of the competition, Climate Innovation Centers, YouThinkGreen, Make Sense Africa, and the Impact Hubs in Africa, the programme can expand the entrepreneurial ecosystem to support start-ups with training, mentorship, and access to funding via incubation and acceleration programmes, such as EIT Climate-KIC ClimAccelerator and ClimateLaunchpad. With GIZ’s funding support, the Climate-KIC International Foundation’s diverse portfolio of entrepreneurship offerings in Africa is set to scale. This partnership adds to GIZ’s portfolio of initiatives on the continent to offer a new response to climate change challenges.
About the Climate-KIC International Foundation
The Foundation’s entrepreneurship portfolio covers the development pipeline that starts at the activation and ideation stages and offers innovators the opportunity to incubate solutions into successful climate-positive start-ups. The work of the Foundation builds from the EIT Climate-KIC ClimAccelerator, the main climate innovation solution provider in Europe with a 10-year track record. Read more at: https://www.climatekicfoundation.org/about/
The Foundation has entered into an agreement supported by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) to accelerate climate tech solutions for a net-zero Africa.
About ClimateLaunchpad
ClimateLaunchpad is considered the world’s largest green business ideas competition. In the past six years with a slogan of “saving the world one start-up at a time”, ClimateLaunchpad has generated more than 6,700 ideas that resulted in the creation of over 8,000 jobs within 1,900 start-ups. Read more at: https://climatelaunchpad.org
This year, the jury has selected 3 national winners from the competition:
Nael Fibre Accessories, a startup that converts agricultural waste from banana & plantain stems into fiber for home accessories, WorldTech Consult which fabricates solar-powered walk-in cold rooms to extend the shelf-lives of perishable crops, and Modcoal, an enterprise that produces briquets with crop residue, as an alternative source of energy for households. All three businesses will be receiving personalized business development services from GCIC with additional support from ClimateLaunpad’s trainers (sponsored by BMZ/GIZ) to help properly structure and scale up their businesses. These startups will also have the opportunity to represent Ghana at the African Regional Finals in Mozambique.
The entrepreneurs have been supported by the Ghana Climate Innovation Centre, providing training and coaching by local as well as international experts. This competition is part of a continental programme managed by the Climate-KIC Foundation. It aims to identify the best climate-positive businesses and support them on the journey towards commercial viability.
