Clean Launchpad Programme 2014

Hessian start-up wins award in CleanLaunchpad finals in Valencia

After an intensive six months tour of boot camps, coaching sessions and national finals, thirty of Europe’s best cleantech ideas from eleven European countries were taken to stage in Valencia in the morning of 29th of October 2014. Thirty of EU’s leading investors and entrepreneurs were judging the pitches in five parallel sessions. Seven start-ups reached the Climate-KIC CleanLaunchpad Grand EU final, that very afternoon.

The winners Sara and Alexander of Wavetube (Sweden) receive EUR 10,000 for further development of their cleantech idea. Second Prize Winner Desolenator (UK) EUR 5,000 and Third Prize Winner Cambond (UK) EUR 2,500. The audience favorite was start-up OR-KESS from Hessen (Germany). However, the best prize is that they are now accepted into Climate-KIC Accelerator, the world’s first real-life business school for promising cleantech entrepreneurs.

OR-KESS takes the dynamic grid stabilization role from conventional power plants. Hence, it enables their shutdown without losing the supply security. OR-KESS aims to provide the kind of highly dynamic energy storage system that is the missing link to achieve the European climate change objectives as well as the German nuclear phase-out. Compared to competing technologies like capacitors, lithium-ion batteries and other flywheel systems this unique technology can be perfectly adapted to the field of application reducing the system costs and energy consumption.

“Six years ago I started working as a research assistant at the Institute for Mechatronic Systems in Mechanical Engineering at Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany. During this time I developed the outer-rotor-concept whose proof of function we provided in January 2014. Due to our success and the positive feedback we got our working group was able to grow from one to four employees”, says founder Hendrik Schaede in his application for the programme.

More information is available here.

Clean Launchpad 2014 - National Finals

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The National Finals of Clean Lauchpad Programme 2014 took place in Climate-KIC Centre Hessen on the 9th of October 2014. The participating teams have had more than two months’ time after the bootcamp to develop their ideas while having recourse to coaching services and start-up workshops offered by TU Darmstadt Energy Center and Start-up Center HIGHEST.

A jury of six experts - lawyers, start-up coaches, practitioners and business angels – examined every idea in details on the basis of several criteria such as market and innovation potential and climate and social impact. Teams were facing a challenge of pitching their ideas in only five minutes in the way which would arouse interest of the jury and provoke the most exciting questions. The results of the jury discussion afterwards reflected a quasi-unanimous decision about three winners: Sulfotools (former Smoc), OR-KESS and AlterHausVerwalter.de.

These teams go on a journey to the Innovation Festival in Valencia (Spain), the biggest Climate-KIC event, where they will compete with the winners of the other national contests at the EU Finals on the 29th of October 2014.

We congratulate the Hessian winners and wish good luck at the EU Finals!

Our winners are:

Sulfotools

What is Sulfotools about?

Business concept relies on a new method for solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) where toxic and environmentally harmful solvents are replaced against water. This gives access to SPPS under environmentally friendly, cheap and sustainable conditions, thus updating the economic viability by preventing unnecessary toxic waste and excluding/reduction of expensive organic solvents.

What is your motivation to work on your idea?

“I am strongly motivated to elaborate the green chemistry concept as a sustainable alternative for the currently used synthetic methods, allowing to reduce the negative impact of chemistry in the climate on our planet. One year ago it would seem that nothing environmentally friendly could appear in the field of solid-phase peptides synthesis, and chemists came to terms with the fact that bio-inspired molecules are synthesized under bio-hostile conditions. Today I am proud to say that with our novel approach our team at the Technische Universität Darmstadt makes a first important step towards the age of nature-friendly peptide chemistry“, says Sascha Knauer.

 

OR-KESS: Outer-Rotor Kinetik Energy Storage Systems

What is OR-KESS about?

The product takes the dynamic grid stabilization role from conventional power plants. Hence, it enables their shutdown without losing the supply security. This kind of highly dynamic energy storage system is the missing link to achieve the European climate change objectives as well as the German nuclear phase-out. Compared to competing technologies like capacitors, lithium-ion batteries and other flywheel systems our unique technology can be perfectly adapted to the field of application reducing the system costs and energy consumption.

What is your motivation to work on your idea?

“Six years ago I started working as a research assistant at the Institute for Mechatronic Systems in Mechanical Engineering at Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany. During this time I developed the outer-rotor-concept whose proof of function we provided in January 2014. Due to our success and the positive feedback we got our working group was able to grow from one to four employees. With the publication of my doctoral thesis within the next few months I will finish my scientific work on the technology and focus on its commercialization”, disclosed to us Hendrik Schaede.

 

AlterHausVerwalter.de

What is AlterHausVerwalter.de about?

For the energy consumer who has no knowledge about his or her energy consumption behavior AlterHausVerwalter is an online platform for an alternative real estate management that provides insights for the tenants about their energy consumptions unlike conventional property administrators. AlterHausVerwalter furthermore operates without expensive technology and is independent of the meter operator, measurement technology and metering methods.

What is your motivation to work on your idea?

“We are a small team of five with a great passion for technology and highest dedication for sustainability and care for resources. After testing different energy and metering concepts in a housing project with brilliant results (energy saving of 20-30%) we were convinced that commercializing our idea would have a great impact on our environment and climate”, replied Esther Lissel.

 

Clean Launchpad Boot Camp on 29-30 July 2014

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During the Clean Launchpad Boot Camp, organised by TU Darmstadt Energy Center, eight German teams faced up to the issues of making business out of their ideas. They learnt to give a clear answer to the question “What’s the deal?” and to explain in a few senteces what problem solves their product, who is the buyer and how much the product costs.

Some of the team excersises were aimed to make clear the product’s unique selling propositon (USP), to reflect about the right questions for the potential customers and to define the so-called “beachhead market”. The Dutch Clean Lauchpad coach Ron Bloemers and three coaches from the TU Darmstadt entrepreneurship department HIGHEST supported the teams at working on their tasks.

The guest of the start-up talk, Karim Mustaghni, motivated the participants with his experiences in the world-wide start-up scene and underlined the importance of building networks already in the early stages. Further inspiring talks took place during the dinner in one of the local restaurants in the city center of Darmstadt.

The ideas’ presentations at the end of the second day made strong impression not only on the participants themselves but also on the coaches and the team of Climate-KIC Hessen as they showed how much one can develop his/her idea and presentation skills during such a short (but intesive!) time!

The Boot Camp was just a launchpad for the teams who will continue working on their ideas to present them on the 9th of October at National Finals in Darmstadt. The national jury will award three best teams with the trip to the Innovation Festival, the biggest Climate-KIC event that will take place on October 29-31 in Valencia. There, they will compete with other Clean Launchpad teams coming from all over Europe. Three winners will get grants as well as an access to Climate-KIC Accelerator, an important incubation programme for European start-ups.

To see more Clean Launchpad impressions and to read blogs from other countries visit the Clean Launchpad facebook and Clean Launchpad webpage.

Clean Launchpad Programme: Application

If you have an idea in the climate change mitigation sector which might become your business idea, join our pilot project Clean Launchpad Programme. During a boot camp you will be tought by the experienced coaches the fundamentals about starting-up. Followed by weeks of homework and individual coaching you will present your business idea concept to a jury. Three winners can get accepted to the Incubation Programme 2015 and come along to one of the Climate-KIC biggest events Innovation Festival in October 2014 in Valencia (Spain). 

Boot camp dates: 29 & 30 July 2014
Location: Germany, Hesse, Darmstadt
Presentation Day: 9 October 2014, Darmstadt
Language: English

Application deadline (extended): 15 July 2014

Application: http://cleanlaunchpad.eu

Contact:

Irina Shults: shults@energycenter.tu-darmstadt.de, Tel. +49 (0) 6151 16 75044

Our consulting partner in Clean Launchpad Programme 2014 is Gründungsberatung HIGHEST of TU Darmstadt.