Impact Hub Athens was held on Friday, November 12, a hybrid event for the second part of the ClimAccelerator Beyond program. The program is also implemented by impact hubs in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Serbia and Slovenia with the participation of 120 Startups. The aim of the program is to create a strong network of professionals who are active and promote the development of sustainable, regenerative and innovative solutions for the protection of the environment.
In Greece it started in May 2021, and has already supported, during the first cycle, 9 companies with awards of 36,000 euros as well as with a set of workshops with innovative business tools, personalized guidance and connection – cooperation with experts and executives from environmental organizations and businesses.
Four startups stood out and were awarded for their innovative business solutions that promote positive environmental impact, in the framework of the business empowerment program, implemented with the co-financing of EIT Climate-KIC and, for Greece, with the support of the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation.
The Startups that were distinguished are:
EV Loader, an open platform that helps professionals and businesses with power stations, providing them with the entire reservation and payment management system in real time and in full transparency, while helping them attract more electric vehicle drivers by increasing their revenues and streamlining their transactions.
Dataphoria, an analytics-as-a-service platform that helps automate and monitor ESG analytics while creating Business Intelligence systems.
Aegean Cargo Sails, which presented an ecological model of sea transport aiming at the creation of a sustainable network of “blue economy” in the Aegean.
Théla, a company that focuses on sustainability in fashion by combining used plastic and traditional techniques.
The four teams won a cash prize of 9,000 euros each through the process of a 5-minute pitching session. The evaluation was based on business sustainability criteria with emphasis on environmental and social impact.
The second cycle of the program was also attended by an Ankaa Project which supports immigrants, refugees and Greeks excluded from work, Feel Good Food by creating vegan meals for the office and Open Food Network Greece with a marketplace of agricultural products.
Responsible for the winners in the Greek part of the program were Eva Lianou (Latsis Foundation), Renetta Mitsi (Goody’s – Everest Group), Ioli Christopoulou (The Green Tank), Paul Kidner (Tima Foundation) and Alexander Karydis (Sporos Platform).
In the third and final cycle of the program that will take place in December, other, more mature, Greek Startups for pitching and B2B meetings with companies and investors will take part.
Here are statements from the Impact Hub and the winners:
ImpactHub Athens: “The ClimAccelerator Beyond gave us the opportunity to meet wonderful professionals and work very intensively with them, accelerating the development of business solutions that mitigate the environmental crisis.A wonderful and diverse journey of business empowerment, in which the creativity and appetite of the startups that participated, combined with the interest and valuable knowledge and advice of experts and brokers from the local and global community of Impact Hub, makes us feel stronger and more optimistic for a fairer and greener future.”
EV loader: “The workshops of Climaccelerator Beyond helped us a lot in determining our contribution accurately, while the training processes at local and international level on the sales strategy and the development of our business planning provided us with practical ideas on how to expand our clientele beyond Greek borders.”
Dataphoria: “Through our participation in the ClimAccelerator Beyond and the amazing support of the Impact Hub Athens team, we were given the opportunity to redefine our services, updating our value proposition and adapting our services to the needs of the market.”
Aegean Cargo Sailing: “Our trip to Climaccelerator Beyond was a real revelation on how to transform our team’s ideas and values into a business model with measurable parameters. We learned how to set short-term and sustainable business goals and enriched our business toolkit with useful tools for financial planning and social and environmental impact measurement.”
Thela: “ClimAccelerator Beyond orchestrated our effort to turn primitive ideas into a strong and profitable business model. We learned a lot about the circular economy, financial planning, measuring our social and environmental impact, acquiring a rich range of efficient tools and methodologies that we can apply to our business.”
