Baku. 16 August. REPORT.AZ/ The final round of ClimateLaunchpad, the largest “cleantech” competition in the world, was held with the support of Barama Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center of Azercell.
Report informs referring to “Azercell”, as a result, 3 startups gained an opportunity to represent Azerbaijan in the Global Grand Finale. In total, 13 startups joined the competition at national level. It is the first time Azerbaijan has joined ClimateLaunchpad competition this year. The Global Grand Finale will take placein Limasol, Cyprus, on October 17-18, 2017. The winners of the ClimateLaunchpad 2017 competition in Azerbaijan are:
1st place: Co2atalyser (http://co2atalyser.com/)
2nd place: EMWAES
3rd place: Sh2ower (www.sh2ower.com)
The project “Rainergy” developed by two 14-year-olds became the winner in the nomination of “Audience Favorite Startup”. In addition, Leyla Taghizada was awarded Woman Philanthropist of the Year Award 2017 by Social Innovation Lab for her enermous support under the project.
13 teams from Azerbaijan have been involved in intensive training programmes since May. The training programmes were carried out by Hans Westerhof, ClimateLaunchpad team member from the Netherlands and expert in startups and innovative technologies, as well as local trainers. In these programmes the participants learned critical hands-on business skills for setting up a startup by applying them to their own projects. Following the two-day bootcamp, the teams joined local coaching sessions for 14 weeks. During the sessions the teams worked on essential business concepts determined by ClimateLaunchpad and got prepared for the final round
Top 3 teams from each participating country will enter Grand Finale and pitch before European investors and entrepreneurs. Top 3 winners will receive the prize in the amount of EUR 10,000, EUR 5,000 and EUR 2,500, respectively. Furthermore, top ten startups will join 18-month Climate-KIC Accelerator programme where small ideas turn to great businesses. During this problem, each project will receive a contribution in the amount of EUR 95,000.
The winning country will host Grand Finale next year.
The international platform Climate-KIC which brings together innovative individuals was established in 2010 by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology.
Social Innovation Lab, being official organizer for Azerbaijan ClimateLaunchpad arranged event with the support of High Technologies Park of National Academy of Sciences (gold sponsor) and Barama Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (bronze sponsor). The project is further supported by SUP Accelerator, Next Step Innovation Center, Global Startup Hub, Baku Engineering University Technopark and Youth Inc. Business Incubation Center.