Friday, August 27 2021, Sydney – Australia’s best clean technology startups have been named at the ClimateLaunchpad Australian National Final on Friday night.
From over 60 Aussie entrants, these three cleantech startups will progress to the Southeast Asian Final of the competition, slated to take place next month, and hopefully, from there, at least one Aussie entrant will make it to the Global Grand Final in October.
With innovations spanning ocean clean-up to reducing digital emissions, the competition this year was tight. Ultimately, the winners were:
SEE Labs, who are breathing new life into old EV batteries and repurposing them for light vehicles in India
Whirl, who matches people thinking of buying an EV with EV-owners in their area to build confidence and trade advice
Woodify, who have built software to enable builders and designers to easily swap out traditional materials for more sustainable options.
Whirl also took home the grand prize of the Australian leg of the competition, a $50,000 development grant from Humanitech. “Our purpose-driven, female-founding team understands that e-mobility is a necessary part of a clean energy future and we are committed to making it accessible to everyone,” says Alina Dini, CEO and Founder of Whirl.
Alastair Pryor, head of the Lab at Humanitech and a judge of the competition, said, “Humanitech is thrilled to award a $50,000 grant to Whirl and a place in our 2021 innovation program. Now more than ever, do we need to support organisations like Whirl to amplify their impact and scale on the fight against climate change.”
ClimateLaunchpad is the world’s biggest and best cleantech and green business competition, taking place in over 55 countries this year. Now in its fifth year in Australia, alumni of the competition include Sunovate, the Australasian Circular Textile Association, Coreo, Emmi and Greener, among others.
But ClimateLaunchpad is not just a competition – participants progress through a rigorous program of training, mentoring and pitching. Christopher Lee, CEO of Climate-KIC Australia, the organisation responsible for running the competition in Australia says, “The idea is to get people with great innovations to tackle climate change to be able to make that innovation commercial – to get it out of the lab and into the world where it can make real impact.”
Climate-KIC Australia are accepting expressions of interest to support ClimateLaunchpad’s 2022 program. To get involved, please contact info@climate-kic.org.au. To register your interest in participating in ClimateLaunchpad in 2022, please sign up at www.climate-kic.org.au/clp21#sign-up.
Missed the big night? You can watch a recording of the event here.
-ENDS-
Media contacts:
Climate-KIC Australia – Jessica Hyne | jessica.hyne@climate-kic.org.au | 0487 152 057
Interviews can be arranged with all of our winning teams, please contact Jessica Hyne to get in touch.
Notes:
About ClimateLaunchpad
ClimateLaunchpad is the world’s largest and most successful cleantech and green business ideas competition. Running in over 50 countries, its mission is to unlock the global potential for cleantech to address climate change, and helps to fast-track ideas into businesses. Climate-KIC Australia runs the program in Australia to provide an opportunity for entrepreneurs, students and researchers to connect to a global network of investors, accelerators and market opportunities.
The program is run in collaboration with EIT Climate-KIC, the EU’s major climate innovation initiative.
About Climate-KIC Australia
Climate-KIC Australia is a knowledge and innovation community that aims to inspire and enable climate action by being a catalyst for systemic change, through innovation. Born out of a collaboration with EIT Climate-KIC, Europe’s largest public-private partnership focused on climate change, Climate-KIC Australia specialises in supporting on-the-ground innovation to catalyse system change. We establish links between research, business, entrepreneurs, investors and government to drive transformational projects that unlock change at the speed and scale the climate challenge needs.
“The idea is to get people with great innovations to tackle climate change to be able to make that innovation commercial – to get it out of the lab and into the world where it can make real impact.”
Chris Lee
CEO, Climate-KIC Australia
“Our purpose-driven, female-founding team understands that e-mobility is a necessary part of a clean energy future and we are committed to making it accessible to everyone”
Alina Dini
CEO, Whirl
FURTHER QUOTES
“Innovation and collaboration across the whole battery industry ecosystem in Australia, lies at the heart of the FBICRC. We understand the drive to move towards cleaner and greener sources of energy has never been greater and to realise those goals will take a committed and ambitious effort by many individuals and organisations. The talented winners in the ClimateLaunchpad National Finals embody that entrepreneurial spirit and I wish them all the best in the regional finals.”
– Stedman Ellis, CEO of the Future Batteries Industries CRC
“This is a great opportunity for cleantech and green business start-ups. RACE is excited to be part of this initiative as we’re all about accelerating the transition to Reliable, Affordable, Clean Energy for 2030 through innovation, and these inspiring businesses are paving the way.”
– Jon Jutsen, CEO of RACE for 2030 CRC
“We are a team of young and passionate researchers in the energy storage space envisioning to provide repurposed lithium-ion batteries for electrifying light vehicles, especially in developing countries like India, to mitigate the climate change and pave the path for a sustainable and greener economy. ClimateLaunchpad has been an ideal platform for us to build our business idea via invaluable training and mentoring sessions, which helped us bring one step closer to launching our business idea out into the world.
“We are so glad to be the part of climate warriors and to be the top three national winners of Australia. We are also grateful to have won the mentorship award and are looking forward to learn a lot from our mentor Usman Iftikhar, the CEO Catalysr. The opportunity that ClimateLaunchpad has given us is an immense support and showcased that people like us working hard and fighting against climate change can make their dreams come true in providing an advanced solutions for the environment. We team SEE Labs are eagerly looking forward for South-East Asia Pacific level competition in this further journey.”
– Nanditha Sirigiri, Founder of SEE Labs
“WOODIFY are honoured to be part of ClimateLaunchpad in 2021 and thrilled to be going through to the next round. We see an opportunity for a 100% renewable and zero carbon construction industry that moves the world closer towards a sustainable future. This would not have been possible without the generous support of the ClimateLaunchpad team, Humanitech, and the Telstra Foundation. As contributors to 30% of global emissions, the construction industry is ripe for massive disruption and technology-driven innovation. WOODIFY are happy to be part of this emerging movement towards better, faster, greener, and cheaper buildings. We can’t wait to WOODIFY the world.”
– Tristan Morgan, Founder of WOODIFY
“The participation of everyday people in climate solutions is critical to achieving success, but saying that we know how complicated and noisy the marketplace can be. Whirl cuts through the noise, making it our mission to bring everyone along with us on the journey.
“ClimateLaunchpad gave us an opportunity to sprint on the key aspects of developing our model in a way no other program had. Whirl’s offering is clearer, stronger and more presentable thanks to the support we received from them.”
– Alina Dini, CEO & Founder of Whirl
