Circular Cities ClimAccelerator selects 30 start-ups to drive urban transitions
Home to 75 per cent of Europeans and responsible for more than 70 per cent of global CO2 emissions, cities can lead the European Union’s pathway to a zero-carbon world. The Circular Cities ClimAccelerator aims to drive circularity in cities by addressing the most urgent urban challenges with innovations in circular construction, mobility and circular products and services.
Following a successful pilot in 2021 supported by EIT Climate-KIC, the programme is now in its second year running. Twenty-eight EU start-ups operating in the circular economy have just entered Stage 1 of the 2022 incubation programme. Another two start-ups from the UK were granted exceptional participation due to the compelling nature of their circular solutions.
The selected start-ups represent 21 different cities spanning 13 countries in Europe, bringing a diverse perspective on how the circular economy could positively impact cities and corporate entities.
With innovative solutions covering key areas, such as mobility, construction and the built environment, textile, food, and logistics, the start-ups will receive tailored training and knowledge about business fundamentals to transform their solutions into viable business models.
The landscape of circular solutions
Each start-up presented a different approach to the challenges posed by circular innovation.
Circularity in food systems is one of the trending areas of this edition with Fhlud, Bay Leaf Vegan Foods, Niskus Biotec, GreenBytes and Loop Farms offering specific solutions for tackling food waste and reducing the climate impact of agriculture and food production systems.
Similarly, Arcology System, 4D Mater PC, Hub Controls, Tocco, Transcircular and 2050 materials are endeavouring to make cities more sustainable in the energy, construction, supply chain and materials sectors.
Recycling and reusing are also considered crucial areas for the circular economy with Frieco, Reusable Technologies, TrödelSpende, Munasafn RVK Tool Library, Cooper’s refillery, Circleback, ReFunk, 2GoCup and Danu Robotics presenting potential scalable innovations for these purposes.
SIWEGO, Batconnect, MUV, The ZeroNet and EVtech4U have applied to the Circular Cities ClimAccelerator with the aim of scaling their business ideas in the mobility and logistics industry.
Last but not least, kindby and DYCLE entered Stage 1 of the accelerator programme with circular textile business solutions, while Horizon is hoping to scale its solution as it pertains to social engagement around circularity.
A collaborative journey between start-ups and cities
Conceived as a public-private initiative comprising EIT Climate-KIC, Luvent Consulting, Tangent, Trinity College Dublin and Technical University of Denmark, the Circular Cities ClimAccelerator has now on-boarded the following city partners: Berlin City and Dublin City Council with the support of ecosystem partners in Vienna and Brasov (Romania).
“As a city partner, we get to share the challenges facing Dublin as a European capital city as we work to accelerate our transition to a green and digital economy,” explained Mary Mac Sweeney, Senior Executive Officer and Deputy Head of Enterprise & Economic Development at Dublin City Council. “We look forward to working with the other city partners and the start-ups, who aim to reduce, reuse, recycle, recover and regenerate resources for the betterment of the lives of our citizens and our urban environment. A transition towards a circular economy in Dublin also holds great promise for achieving a balanced and sustainable economic recovery.”
A collaborative two-track journey between start-ups and city stakeholders will ensure continuous and concrete development of circular solutions, tailored to the cities’ and market needs. The “cities-to-cities” track will be a learning journey with case studies and best practices about successful collaborations between start-ups and cities while the “cities-to-start-ups” track aims to unlock effective partnerships between cities and circular solutions.
The 2022 Circular Cities ClimAccelerator is also proud to strengthen the collaboration with UPS and welcome new partnerships with Veolia, PrimeCrowd and CRH as corporate partners. If you are interested in partnering with the programme or in becoming a partner city to advance and promote circular transitions, contact us at info@circular-cities.com.
LEARN MORE ABOUT Circular cities ClimAccelerator
This article has been adapted from its original version published on 24 May 2022.