9 European start-ups join the most international edition of Clean Cities Spain ClimAccelerator

After a successful two editions, the Clean Cities Spain ClimAccelerator has launched. This European accelerator,  led by the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and supported by EIT Climate-KIC, is committed to promoting climate neutrality in urban centres.

As highlighted in the Sustainable Development Goal 11, cities are a critical ecosystem for decarbonisation efforts. Solutions to naturalise spaces, alternatives for the modernisation and energy efficiency of buildings, projects to change mobility and travel, development plans for energy communities and data management tools are some of the 36 proposals submitted by start-ups seeking to change our cities into more resilient and healthy places to live.

Clean Cities Spain ClimAccelerator will scale start–ups from France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, demonstrating the international component of the programme and its alignment with creating synergies and connections at the European level. 

Improving the future of cities necessarily implies global and sustainable long-term actions. “We launched this third edition of the accelerator with a strong conviction in impact entrepreneurship as well as a clear objective of strengthening this initiative in the current climate context,” remarked Elisa Navarro and Ana Horta, accelerator managers of this initiative.

Boosting the innovation to increase the impact

The goal of this edition focuses on increasing the global network of contacts in new markets, establishing investment knowledge and analyzing the start-ups’ scalability. The cohort will have access to a comprehensive training programme with international speakers and relevant specialised profiles in sustainability and impact, European visibility, plus a direct connection with the business, public and academic sector from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and EIT Climate-KIC.

In the words of Navarro and Horta: “In just four months, we hope that the start-ups will be able to expand their contact portfolio and validate their previously defined investment strategy.”

Meet the new cohort

SaferPlaces (Italy) provides actionable insights to assess flood risks in any city worldwide, by making high-resolution information and data-driven algorithms accessible for all. Its simulations and results are run and visualised in a digital twin model of the city, helping cities prepare and increase climate resilience against fluvial, pluvial and coastal flood risk. 

Uali (Spain) combines robotics, IoT, and artificial intelligence to offer a simplified monitoring service that saves time and costs for clients, while reducing environmental damage. 

Robinsun (Spain) enables European households living in apartments to generate their own solar energy for self consumption. This significantly reduces a household´s power bills and CO2 emissions.

Therminer (Spain) is a circular energy solution for IT infrastructure, reducing cooling consumption of servers and reusing the heat released as a substitute in heating circuits, domestic hot water, and heat processes in the industry. 

Volvero (Italy) is the application that connects owners and drivers withunderutilised vehicles and providing an extensive range of efficient mobility possibilities to the drivers. 

Crowmie (Spain) is a community that allows anyone to invest a minimum off €100 in solar PV projects for industrial self-consumption. Their vision is to make impact investing fully accessible and as fluid as the financial markets.

Kelvin (France) is a design solution for efficient home retrofits for professionals thanks to a B2B SaaS that produces reliable, realtime energy retrofit plans. 

The Good Goal (Spain) is a SaaS to enhance the sustainability objectives of organisations and integrate them into the corporate culture through activity and impact metrics.

PropEco (UK) provides the advanced data, proprietary models and analytic tools that organisations and their customers need to assess, decarbonise and de-risk residential property. 

If you would like to be updated on the evolution of the current 2023 edition of Clean Cities Spain ClimAccelerator, do not hesitate to follow us on our LinkedIn profile. For more information, contact us at ana.horta@upm.es and elisa.navarro@upm.es 

About Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM)

The Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (UPM) is the 1st Spanish-speaking Technological University and the 55th Technological University in the world. This University has a strong commitment to the SDGs and is working to have a climate neutral campus by 2040. Entrepreneurship Department at UPM is an area created to stimulate the innovation process in the technological ecosystem. It has created and developed an “open technological ecosystem” linked to the development of technology-based products / processes, with more than 325 high-tech startups created and more than 215 million euros raised in recent years. Additionally, it develops activities that include training for entrepreneurs and the incubation and acceleration of start-ups. For more information, visit: www.upm.es/actuaupm