Habemus Accelerator!

The pandemic still has a grip on all of us and caused changes in many aspects of our lives. It made us rethink our routines, slowed down or even paused activities, maybe forced us to make shifts and in the best case find silver linings.

But let’s also take the current situation as a wake-up call for one of society’s biggest challenges ahead: climate change, which won’t be over soon and cannot just be fixed with a vaccine.

So here is to the climate entrepreneurs.

To mitigate the devastating effects we need entrepreneurs who are driven by a desire to change the world for the better and create solutions for a greener future. We believe that startups’ innovative power is a valuable resource in the development of sustainable concepts. Especially so if connected to leading city departments and corporations committed to addressing the problems at scale, and together.

Let’s fix this together!

With the new Clean Cities ClimAccelerator, Impact Hub Vienna together with the Polytechnical University of Madrid, backed by the EIT Climate KIC and working with the program partner Wien Energie and many other challenges owners have created an Accelerator that focuses on the ecological and social challenges of cities, all over Europe. Now is the time for startups to join this journey towards cities with a carbon-neutral future.

The Clean Cities ClimAccelerator is an EU-wide acceleration program that aims to support 30 climate-focused startups with over EUR 400K in grants and a state-of-the-art program. We are looking for startups developing solutions focused on the transformation towards climate neutrality, across all city systems  – from mobility to waste, from energy to health, and the built environment.

The accelerator offers a 9 month mentoring and coaching program with international experts, and up to EUR 25,000 in grants per startup – applications are open until May 16th on: www.cleancities.network Built on the ecosystems developed within the Deep Demonstration of Healthy, Clean Cities of the City of Vienna and the City of Madrid is focusing on actual challenges of the respective cities.

While actively shaping the future of energy through innovation and research, Wien Energie is also the lead partner in the accelerator program, teaming up with the initial challenge owners: Wiener Linien, Wiener Lokalbahnenand Wiener Wohnen. From across the continent, start-ups will get to solve challenges proposed by Ferrovial, ZubiLabs and Barrio La Pinada. Many other climate heroes will join us along the way!

The program is designed in 3 stages:

  • Validation: 1st stage will focus on helping start-ups refine and develop their specific unique selling point and business model: the program offers a virtual boot camp, one-on-one mentoring, up to EUR 5,000 funding for each start-up, workshops, and exposure to our global network and events.​
  • Collaboration: The 2nd stage brings additional funding up to EUR 20,000;  start-ups will engage with demand-owners, support from experts, mentors during workshops and various activities​ move with a well-formulated business model to real customers. They dial in on solving a real problem by one of our challenge owners and continuously develop their proof of concept.
  • Impact: Start-ups are ready to pitch their business cases to investors or launch it to customers. We offer workshops on valuation, investor strategy, financial structuring, deal-making, strategic partnering, and access to EIT Climate-KIC Investment Program and Investor Marketplace.

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