Rabat – Climate Launchpad, an international green business ideas competition, selected on September 28 two Moroccan startups for the Global grand finals to be held in the Netherlands between October 27-29.
Organized by Association Climate-KIC, the climate-themed contest is aiming to unlock the world’s cleantech potential by creating opportunities for young entrepreneurs.
“Climate change is a major challenge that concerns us all. With this initiative we want to support the ingenuity and creativity of young Moroccan project leaders to find adequate solutions and thus help preserve our planet,” said Jeroen Roodenbug, the Ambassador of the Netherlands in Morocco.
After the Regional Africa Finals in Mozambique, the jury deliberated before announcing the two winning green projects from Morocco, namely the “Wave Beat” project by Advanced Third Age Renewable Energy Company (ATAREC) and a biotech project by Entomonutris.
ATAREC is a Moroccan startup that enables its users to reduce their environmental footprint and energy bills through its innovative renewable energy solutions. Its flagship solution, Wave Beat, transforms marine energy into electrical energy.
“Our experience with ClimateLaunchPad was unique and enriching, [as it] allowed us to gain maturity in the face of internationally renowned specialists. Our WAVE BEAT project has evolved thanks to the enthusiasm of the organizing team and the energetic and positive coaches,” declared Oussama Nour from ATAREC.
Entomonutris is a pioneering Moroccan biotechnology startup that produces and markets a new source of protein and biofertilizers from insect breeding for animal feed, agriculture and aquaculture. It is also exploring how to extract chitin from insects.
“We are very happy to reach the international finals of the Climate launchpad competition. Beyond this victory, it is above all a recognition of the importance of our business idea as a response to ecological issues and an exceptional opportunity to make Entomonutris known and to represent Morocco at the international level,” added Patrick Lhomme, the Canadian cofounder of Entomonutris.
So far, Climate Launchpad Morocco has been very efficient in choosing the most competent candidates and the coaches have been very satisfied with the level of the selected startups.
The cleantech contest has organized a set of follow up sessions and a bootcamp that helped the candidates become more competitive.
The competition, which counts more than 100 partners, such as Accenture, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement and Microsoft, along with the Green Morocco Plan launched in 2008, has helped contribute to Morocco’s leadership in climate-conscious policy making across the African continent.
