ClimateLaunchpad
Chrysalis Leap (Greece and Cyprus)
By: Phani Hadjiphani, Ioannis Kourouklides
ClimateLaunchpad is the world’s largest Clean Tech business idea competition organized by Chrysalis LEAP in Cyprus and Greece on behalf of Climate-KIC. Climate-KIC is the European Union’s main climate innovation initiative that aims to unlock the Clean Tech potential and create opportunities for innovators to address climate change in Europe, thus accelerating innovation that enables a low-carbon future.
Here is how it goes: The selected startups (up to 10) that will be invited to participate in this year’s ClimateLaunchpad will receive a two-day intensive bootcamp training. The bootcamp will take place in the village of Kalopanagiotis, where the teams will have the opportunity to develop and shape their ideas and learn all the fundamentals of creating a business. They will also take part in a series of coaching sessions for better preparation for the national finals where these teams will pitch their ideas before a renowned jury. The top three startups will travel with the LEAPsters (a term used to describe the Chrysalis LEAP team) to Talin, Estonia in October 2016 to participate in the European Finals and compete for a chance to access Climate-KIC accelerators, receive 18 months’ incubation and up to €95 000 equity-free funding.
Petros Savva of H2Move, a Chrysalis LEAP graduate states that “It has been a journey that I wish every person can have the opportunity to make”.
The ClimateLaunchpad competition forms the first stage of Chrysalis LEAP’s annual program for 2016–2017. Focusing on the education of participants and commercialization of the most promising Clean Tech ideas in Cyprus and Greece, the program continues with two more training stages, in which the selected participating startups will further develop their business model and will be prepared to pitch and present their idea to prospective investors. It is worth mentioning that application to these two stages will also be open and available to startups that took part in previous years’ programs.
Vangelis Drakonakis, a ClimateLaunchpad participant of 2015 stated, “through this journey we learnt a lot, we gained confidence, started believing in ourselves more and saw the potential of our idea”.
According to the Chrysalis LEAP team, “Every year, we at Chrysalis LEAP, our sponsors, our partners, and volunteers, are inspired by the people we meet. They come to us with an idea and they leave as entrepreneurs. But what is it exactly that our team brings to the table and why do we do what we do? The main ingredient to our formula is love. We love what we do. We love working together, we love helping others, and we love seeing our teams succeed. And that’s because we’ve seen them through their journey and have been rewarded from the personal satisfaction that comes with the success of each and every one of the startups we help; even if their idea fails.”
“This event was one of the greatest experiences of my life! I had the opportunity to turn my dreams into reality”, said Arestis of Panemon, another ClimateLaunchpad 2015 finalist.
If you want to learn, develop your idea, receive top notch coaching and mentoring and meet great people, here is your opportunity. Students, Entrepreneurs, Researchers and anyone who dreams of starting their own business are invited to submit their Clean Tech idea.
Deadline is May 31st and applications can be submitted at: http://climatelaunchpad.org/application-form/.
About
Chrysalis LEAP is the first accelerator in Cyprus and from the very beginning it kept a Clean Tech focus. It was founded in 2012 and very quickly entered into a partnership with Climate-KIC. It comprises of a unique team of Entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds and solid startup experience. In essence, it helps Entrepreneurs transform Clean Tech ideas into business opportunities. Chrysalis LEAP ran its pilot project in 2013 and soon joined the Climate-KIC family and has been organizing the competition for Greece and Cyprus since 2014. Since its operation, it has received over 250 applications and it has trained and mentored approximately 80 startups, 6 of these having received funding of over €500 000 euros in total with access to Climate-KIC and other renowned European accelerators. Other startups have attracted interest from international corporates and investors. Candidate applicants range from Scientists (such as Mathematicians, Physicists, etc.) and Engineers to Business people, with the youngest one being 18 years old and the eldest one being 60 years old. ClimateLaunchpad has been running since 2014. It started with only a handful of participating countries and is now running in 30 countries in total.
More information regarding Chrysalis LEAP can be found at:
http://www.chrysalisleap.com/
We are grateful to Chrysalis LEAP for providing us with the relevant information needed to write this article. We would like to wish them all the best in the future. Credits should be given to Zedem Media for material presented here.
