Climate start-ups take one step closer to success
Nine cutting-edge climate start-ups are taking one step closer to success today as they join stage 2 of ECCI's coveted Climate-KIC Accelerator programme.
The new recruits include zero-carbon transport innovators PeddleSMART - on a mission to disrupt the commercial and consumer transport market and Clean Water Designs, whose portable, low energy distillation device is set to significantly reduce the demand for bottled water.
These two fast-growing start-ups join the seven companies that have progressed through Stage 1 of the Accelerator programme, such as Lilypads, who have developed a reusable sanitary pad to reduce waste and improve performance. The world-renowned initiative offers early stage entrepreneurs access to funding, business coaching with experienced professionals, a range of masterclasses and free workspace at ECCI’s vibrant Edinburgh hub.
Launched at ECCI in June 2017, ECCI's Climate-KIC Accelerator has already kick-started 30 Scottish companies with entrepreneurs bagging funding of over £1.75 million and scooping an impressive 54 awards.
The four month Accelerator 2 programme of training, mentoring and networking is designed to help participants understand whether their business is solving real problems for their target audience and offers up to €10,000 of funding.
Alison Wood (pictured), Founder of Lilypads, who have stepped up from the Accelerator 1 programme, said:
“Dream Pads is delighted to be part of Accelerator 2! The learning from Accelerator 1 was amazing and it was great to work with other like-minded businesses aiming to have a positive impact on the planet.
The second stage will support us in discussions with customers and preparing our product for launching to market.”
New to ECCI's Climate-KIC Accelerator, Duncan Peters, Director of Clean Water Designs said:
“Clean Water Designs is delighted to be accepted to ECCI's Climate-KIC Accelerator. We share their goal of business-for-good and using technology to tackle big problems. We are extremely excited to soon be learning from the coaches, mentors and other companies who can help us think differently about the challenges we’re going after."
Planet Heat founder and director, Russell Gibb, said:
"Planet Heat are really excited to have been awarded access to Stage 2 of the Climate-KIC ECCI Accelerator Programme. The funding will allow us to hire our first staff to do the vital jobs of Customer Discovery and market research and will allow us to focus more on product development and validation."
ECCI’s Head of Innovation and Skills Jamie Brogan said:
"I'm delighted to see such an exciting cohort of innovative and fast-growing companies taking the step up to Accelerator 2.
"We're looking forward to seeing tangible results as they each learn more about their target markets and move to expanding their teams and refining solutions.
"With companies like this all working alongside each other at ECCI I'm hopeful we're going to be better equipped to tackle the complex challenges we face in building a zero carbon future."