Circular economy business ideas win ClimateLaunchpad competition

Three teams pitching circular economy business ideas were chosen at ClimateLaunchpad Finland 2017 to take part in the international ClimateLaunchpad final to be held in Cyprus in October. Altogether eight teams took part in the national final of ClimateLaunchpad, the world’s largest green business idea competition, at start-up hub Maria 01 on June 15.

The winner of ClimateLaunchpad Finland 2017 is Pikotech with their idea for developing a business model for combined community scale sawmilling and bioenergy solution for pine forest intensive regions in developing countries. The team members, Tatu Lyytinen and Aditya Poudyal, are currently engaged in customer development in Nepal and Tanzania, as well as in modifying the bioenergy solution to fit the developing country context.

‘We truly believe that our idea of creating a profitable business ecosystem involving various stakeholders with a principle of circular economy will benefit the people at the bottom of economic pyramid at large. It was both encouraging and exciting for us to win the CLP17 in Finland and we are grateful for the opportunity to develop and pitch our idea’, says Poudyal.

TeMu Materials and Urbantransitioners also made it to the top three. TeMu Materials’ business idea is to turn textile waste into reusable biomaterials with mushroom leather being the main final product. Urbantransitioners’ idea is to build toilets in developing countries, collect urine and produce fertilizer out of it.

The ClimateLaunchpad competition, organised this year in 36 countries, aims to accelerate innovation that enables a low-carbon future. The competition scouts cleantech talent and helps them grow their sustainable idea into a global business. The competition is part of the EU-backed Climate-KIC initiative and organised in Finland by Impact Iglu.

More information:
Sini Olkanen
ClimateLaunchpad Coordinator, Impact Iglu
+358 50 340 5320
sini.olkanen@aalto.fi