Selected from 301 application from 25 countries, UNIL spinoff AgroSustain and cleantech startup UniSieve are among the nine European companies benefiting from the €4 million EIT Climate-KIC funding initiative. The funding should enable climate ventures to recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis.
EIT Climate-KIC is investing €4 million in climate ventures as part of the EIT Crisis Response Initiative, which directly contributes to the European Union’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The funds will help selected companies recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, and to support them in their efforts to bring essential innovations to contribute to the fight against climate change.
“Our entrepreneurship community has been severely affected by the COVID-19 crisis, be it through last-minute investment cancellations, losing customers, global supply chains being interrupted or even just distraction from prioritizing the climate emergency in the face of immediate economic crisis,” says CEO of EIT Climate-KIC, Kirsten Dunlop.
A total of 301 applicants from 25 countries applied for funding under the “Extraordinary COVID-19 Venture Support” call launched by EIT Climate-KIC in May 2020 to support highly innovative climate impact ventures whose business has been impacted by the pandemic crisis. EIT Climate-KIC shortlisted 19 businesses and invited them to participate in a ‘Climate impact forecast’ workshop and to deliver their five-year ‘Climate Impact Potential’. Different metrics were used to calculate the greenhouse gases emissions reduction potential of the innovation and assess the suitability of the business for the grant.
The nine ventures selected for funding develop innovations in agriculture, energy and industry and they originate from Germany, the UK, France, Sweden Spain and Switzerland. They will receive between €320,000 and €500,000.
The two Swiss startups are:
AgroSustain SA (€420,000)
The Lausanne based Agritech startup provides biological solutions for crop protection, including plant-based coatings for fruits and vegetables for extended freshness and shelf-life as well as antifungal solutions, preventing fungal growth on crops in the field, and protecting the fresh produce during storage and distribution.
UniSieve AG (€440,000)
Based in Zurich, the cleantech company provides sustainable membrane separation solutions to customers in the chemical and energy industries. The company’s patent-pending platform technology, which is applicable to a broad range of applications of different scales, promises to save a significant fraction of the energy costs and CO2 emissions on many separation processes.
(Press release/RAN)
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