Climate-KIC start-ups win at Clean Tech Business Day in the Netherlands

Climate-KIC start-ups E-stone and Pectcof have won prizes at the annual Clean Tech Business Day that took place in the Netherlands last week (11 December).

E-stone is the winner of the early stage start-up sessions. The jury expressed that this is the ‘holy grail in energy storage’ and praised the huge climate impact.

Pectcof is the winner in the growth session. The jury cited an excellent value proposition for investors, the international scope, and creating a solution for a real environmental problem.

The winners took part in the Climate-KIC supported Investors Lounge competition. The start-ups have both received a Climate-KIC knowledge voucher of €25.000 to grow their business by working with Climate-KIC experts to finalise their product development.

Clean Tech Business Day

The Clean Tech Business Day is the the biggest event in the Netherlands to share, learn, pitch, present, meet and network for developers, producers, innovators and financiers in the Dutch clean-tech sector.

The global market for clean and sustainable energy technology is growing fast at 27% per year. The turnover in 2020 is estimated at €1.600 billion, which makes this sector one of the most important future markets. A huge opportunity for start-ups ready to enter this market.

Climate-KIC start-ups

Climate-KIC start-ups used this event to present themselves at the Innovation Show and pitch at the Investors Lounge.  An excellent opportunity to raise visibility and gain traction, either for finding venture capital or other business opportunities.

A group of start-ups in the Climate-KIC Acceleration Programme were invited to pitch in the early stage session. Later stage entrepreneurs were selected to pitch in the growth session in the afternoon.

Both Investor Lounge sessions were moderated by Rens de Jong, Presenter at Business News Radio. He asked the audience what they think is the most important issue to determine whether a pitch is good or not. Results: Enthusiasm, good team, excitement and even silence.

Impressive pitches

Impressive was the pitch of Skigh Energy. Starting like a regular pitch, going in to detail about their  product, potential markets and finding other niches, the presentation stopped after two minutes. And there it was, silence and full attention of the audience.

At that point the founder confessed that after their pivoting they decided not to continue with their start-up and why. The silence in the room was followed by a big applause.

The audience felt the courage that it took, to go on stage, and talk about this aspect of entrepreneurship.

Frans Nauta, Entrepreneurship Lead at Climate-KIC The Netherlands framed it like this: “ It this doesn’t mean that you have failed as an entrepreneur. No, it means that you are experienced now. I always recommend young people to start a business instead of doing an MBA.”