Applications now open for world’s biggest green business ideas competition.
Melbourne, April 2, 2019 – With the major parties continuing to battle it out to remain relevant on the issue of climate change, it’s hard not to notice that the same ideas get trotted out time and time again. But if the climate strikes and increasing extreme weather events tell us anything, it’s that Australia needs to be finding more innovative solutions to tackle climate change.
Chris Lee, CEO at Climate-KIC Australia, believes some Australian ingenuity is key. “We’re on a quest to find the most interesting, most promising, and most impactful solutions to address climate change and give them the skills and opportunities they need to take them to a global stage.”
To do this, Climate-KIC Australia today launched the Australian 2019 edition of the world’s largest green business ideas competition, ClimateLaunchpad. Globally, ClimateLaunchpad brings in clean-technology and green business ideas from over 50 countries across five continents. The program is part of the entrepreneurship offerings of Climate-KIC Australia’s collaboration partner the European Union’s innovation initiative for climate change, EIT Climate-KIC.
ClimateLaunchpad helps aspiring innovators, entrepreneurs and early stage start-ups grow their cleantech ideas into global businesses. The competition looks for individuals or teams with an innovative business idea in renewable energy, energy efficiency, food and agriculture, water, transportation, industrial technology or any other way to tackle climate change. Whether an idea is still on the back of a napkin or an early stage start-up, everyone is encouraged to apply.
This year, Climate-KIC Australia is teaming up with Fishburners, EnergyLab and Curtin University to deliver the ClimateLaunchpad program across Australia. Australian applicants can apply for the program being run in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.
Selected applicants are provided with rigorous training at an intensive two-day Boot Camp, led by an internationally renowned entrepreneur and start-up trainer. Leading teams are also given mentoring from industry leaders and former participants, culminating in a National Pitch Final in October, with the top two competitors joining the Global Grand Final in November 2019.
Global finalists present their ideas to an audience of start-up accelerator programs, angel investors and professional networks that can help them kick-start their businesses and expose them to the global market.
The world’s top-10 best ideas win access to the EIT Climate-KIC accelerator program. The overall winner of the Global Grand Final also receives a cash prize of €10,000 (~ AU$16,000), the runner up gets €5,000 (~ AU$8,000) and the team that comes in third place wins €2,500 (~ AU$4,000).
Frans Nauta, ClimateLaunchpad founder: “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.”
“ClimateLaunchpad was a complete gamechanger for us. We went from having what we thought was a pretty solid idea, to a fully-fledged plan for taking our product to market, which has enabled us to commence our seed funding round, with a really promising outlook” – Cesira Leigh, Founder of Sunovate, ClimateLaunchpad 2018 Australian winner.
Information about ClimateLaunchpad, how to enter the competition and updates are available at https://climate-kic.org.au/our-programs/launchpad/ (#CLP19)
Media Contacts:
For more information about ClimateLaunchpad, press and interview requests please contact:
Sina Lengelsen, ClimateLaunchpad Manager Australia:
sina.lengelsen@climate-kic.org.au 0410 868 248
Belinda Whelan, Climate-KIC Australia, Director of Strategic Projects:
belinda.whelan@climate-kic.org.au 0412301586
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Notes to editors:
About Climate-KIC Australia
Climate Knowledge Innovation Community (Climate-KIC) Australia is a public-private partnership founded in 2017 to foster innovation and develop links between industry, government, research and civil society to address the challenges of climate change mitigation and adaptation to achieve systemic change.
About ClimateLaunchpad
ClimateLaunchpad is the global green business ideas competition. Its mission is to address the negative impacts of climate change by ways of innovation, invention and entrepreneurship. A green future demands thousands of innovations challenging the current business models. The competition supports aspiring and promising cleantech entrepreneurs with training, coaching and networking opportunities. ClimateLaunchpad operates on a global scale, currently in over 50 countries.
ClimateLaunchpad was established in 2014 and is part of the Entrepreneurship offerings of EIT Climate-KIC and facilitated in Australia by Climate-KIC Australia.