Valuable and inspiring: ClimateLaunchpad Switzerland 2021
Eight Swiss teams were part of the Boot Camp in the beginning of May 2021. Once again, just like last year, it took place virtually. Paris Thomas was the trainer for Switzerland this year. Over the course of three half-days, he shared his knowledge, answered questions, told stories, taught new skills and made the whole experience so much fun with his great energy!
The following teams participated:
Correntics
Mycrobez AG
Nears.
Piss & Love
Qaptis
SeeNergy
Symbergy
Zero Waste Cosmetics
FOLLOW-UP MODULES AND PITCH TRAINING
In the weeks after the Boot Camp, the Startup Academy (who has been organizing ClimateLaunchpad – the world’s largest clean-tech ideas competition – in Switzerland since 2015) organized the Follow-up Modules. In these, the startups continued working on their business ideas and pitch decks. They calculated their climate impacts in the Climate Impact Forecast Tool Workshop, which was sponsored by the Bank of America. And they had a Pitch Training in which they practiced presenting their business ideas – all while keeping Paris Thomas’ piece of advice from the Boot Camp in mind: «Start with the punchline. Don’t hide it, don’t wait to talk about it. Don’t build anticipation and excitement. Because newsflash: Nobody is as excited about your idea as you are!»
On the 17thof June, the Swiss startups pitched their ideas to the jury on the virtual National Final stage. The jury members Claus-Heinrich Daub, Marilen Dürr, Stefanie Fehr, Sandrine Straub, Dimitrios Terzis paid close attention during the pitches, asked questions during the Q&As, and then chose the winning teams!
NATIONAL FINAL WINNERS 2021
The startup Qaptis, co-founded by Théodore Caby, Masoud Talebi Amiri and Yves Loerincik, got the highest score by the jury and won 1st place! With their plug-in technology, they can capture up to 90% of the emitted CO2on heavy vehicles, store it in liquid form directly onboard, and then recycle it.
Michael Gloor and Gaudenz Halter, co-founders of Correntics, won 2nd place. With their solution, they help their clients reduce risks in their value chains and improve their operations and their financial resilience in the face of climate change and emerging risks. With their risk-analytics solutions, they can identify weak links in supply chains and mitigate business interruption risks.
Third place went to Piss & Love, the startup founded by Vincent Carel. Not only was his pitch very entertaining and made the jury smile, but he was obviously also able to convince them of his business idea. He develops dry toilets that are dismountable, customizable and elegant. The startup meets sanitary needs in an ecological way. And it promotes the recycling of human waste into valuable resources for plant growth.
The three winning teams will move on to the ClimateLaunchpad Regional Finals and will get to join the Startup Academy Guidance Program for 12 months (worth CHF 7,500).
VALUABLE AND INSPIRING EXPERIENCE SO FAR
The top 3 have enjoyed their ClimateLaunchpad experiences so far and have been able to benefit a lot from the Boot Camp and the Follow-Up Modules. «ClimateLaunchpad enables you to structure your idea and turn it into a potential business. Building a solid pitch deck was our key learning during this program. We recommend any entrepreneur to participate in ClimateLaunchpad,» said Théodore Caby, co-founder of Qaptis.
The co-founders of Correntics found the Boot Camp especially valuable and inspiring since it allowed them to refine their «(…) business idea and to exchange ideas with the coaches and other innovative startups in Switzerland that want to address the challenges of the climate crisis.»
And Vincent Carel, founder of Piss & Love, the startup that won 3rd place at the National Final, added: «ClimateLaunchpad introduced us to the exciting world of business with all its subtleties, challenges and opportunities. The coaching team used passion, positive energy and humor to transmit their precious knowledge, such as « the Mom test » that we particularly enjoy for customer discovery. It was definitely an awesome experience for us!»
Once again, congratulations to all three teams on their wins and we can’t wait to continue supporting and coaching you and are very much looking forward to seeing you pitch in front of the international jury and audience later this year.
A huge thank you to our jury members for their time, valuable feedback and support of ClimateLaunchpad Switzerland. And we’d also like to thank our trainer Paris Thomas once again; we very much enjoyed learning from him alongside our participants.
To learn more about the Swiss winning teams, visit their websites or find them on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/pissandlove/
- 8.07.2021
- 9:59 am