While the ongoing worldwide pandemic poses a big treat to many businesses, Energy Tech Challengers (formerly New Energy Challengers (NEC)) is helping the Energy tech and E-mobility industry thrive. It’s an initiative that brings the world’s top energy, transport and sustainability start-ups together on one stage to compete for an equity free money prize, the attention of global media, and over 75 VC’s and CVC’s. Recently, ETC completed the second round of the competition and is now preparing for the finals, which will take place in September.
Energy Tech Challengers is giving the start-up businesses much needed exposure and a great opportunity to not only network with the industry’s leading investors and corporates, but also a chance to grow faster. So far, the contest has received a lot of positive feedback, receiving over 200 applications from 20 countries and 5 continents in the first round.
Start-up companies compete in six categories that play an important role in the sustainable energy transition: Batteries, Hydrogen, E-Mobility, Digitalization, Automation & AI and Future Grid. Out of 200 applicants, industry experts from leading corporations picked 59, 9-10 per category, who passed to the second round.
From the 29th of June to the 3rd of July, the Energy Tech Network channel held a live pitching week, where these 59 companies pitched virtually to more than 30 VC’s and CVC’s for a place in the finals. Over 2000 people watched 12 hours of pitching and this week the jury will decide on the Top 30, who will get a chance to compete at a 5-day event, Energy Tech Summit 2020.
It’s the first time we’re organizing this type of event, but it’s been an exciting and successful journey so far. All of the participants have amazing business ideas, which makes the selection process really hard. We were happy to receive so many applications from all around the world and that most of the pitches were presented by the company’s CEOs themselves.
The finals will take place on the 21st-25th of September, at a 5-day conference, Energy Tech Summit 2020 in Vilnius, Lithuania. It will be one of the first global Energy tech and E-mobility conferences to be resumed this year, and it will bring the top European energy and mobility investors, entrepreneurs, government leaders, and start-up businesses together.
The pandemic has also awakened the globe to the existential risk of global warming that’s affecting the entire world and a lot of the attention has been brought to the climate impact, which creates great opportunities for the Energy Tech industry to grow.
Watch full ETC60 live pitch videos and see the list of Energy Tech Challengers Top30 finalists here: https://energytechchallengers.com/
