ECCI start-ups bag three awards at Scottish EDGE

ECCI supported start-ups have bagged three awards and £45,000 at Scottish EDGE - the UK's biggest small business funding competition.

EIT Climate-KIC Accerlerator start-ups Seawater Solutions and SolarisKit won £25,000 (in the Circular Economy EDGE category) and £10,000 (in the Wild Card EDGE) respectively, and former ClimateLaunchpad global finalist Crover picked up £10,000 (in the Young EDGE category).

Scottish EDGE is the UK’s biggest funding competition for early stage and high growth companies, distributing more £1 million among 33 promising entrepreneurs this year.

The total pot of money awarded through Scottish EDGE to support early stage, high growth businesses has now reached £16 million in the 16 rounds now completed.  

ECCI residents and EIT Climate-KIC Accerlerator participants Seawater Solutions, led by Yanik Adam Nyberg (pictured), work with farmers around Scotland and Vietnam to develop innovative sustainable farming techniques, using seawater, to grow salt-tolerant crops. Focusing on redeveloped coastal farmland, the start-up is on a mission to tackle climate change, loss of biodiversity, and food insecurity.

Open to pre-trading businesses, Wild Card EDGE awards a grant of up to £15,000 and access to a non-financial support package provided by leading business professionals. SolarisKit shared the overall prize money with 6 other start-ups, receiving £10,000.

Founder and CEO Dr Faisal Ghani impressed the judges across all three initiatives with SolarisKit’s disruptive, low carbon technology - a flat-packable, solar collector providing clean energy in the form of hot water. As well as tackling climate change head on, the technology is empowering some of the world’s poorest people by providing access to low-cost, clean heat.

The final ECCI winner of the night was Crover, Scotland's highest performing company in the ClimateLaunchpad global green ideas competition. Backed by ECCI, founder Dr Conti pitched against 135 cleantech start-ups to win third place in the ClimateLaunchpad Global Grand Final in Edinburgh in 2018.

Dr Faisal Ghani, SolarisKit CEO and Founder said: “Winning Scottish EDGE is a real boost for SolarisKit!

“We are now preparing for the manufacture of our flat-packable solar collector for installation in Rwanda and focusing our efforts on marketing. All of which are expensive. Funding will be used to cover production tooling costs, packaging design, and marketing activities.

“We are grateful for the continued support provided by ECCI and the EIT Climate-KIC programme through Stages 1, 2, and 3 of this fabulous programme.” Dr Faisal Ghani, SolarisKit CEO and Founder

Could you benefit from ECCI's start-up programmes?

Climate-KIC Accelerator is ECCI's three-stage programme for low carbon entrepreneurs and start-ups in the UK.