Press-releases
09.07.2018
The final round of “ClimateLaunchpad”, the largest “cleantech” program in the world was held with the general organizational support of innovation center “Social Innovation Lab” (“Sil.”) and the support of “Barama” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center of “Azercell Telecom” LLC. A total of 15 startups representing 3 countries, 2 academies, 9 universities, 3 schools and 4 cities joined the final round of the competition.
The top 3 startups gained an opportunity to represent the country in Grand Final to be held in Edinburg, Scotland. In addition, 10 startups that will be selected for the program from Azerbaijan will compete for 18-month accelerator program (with € 95,000 seed investment) and a cash prize. Top 10 startups of Grand Final will join an 18-month “Climate-KIC Accelerator” where small ideas grow into great businesses. The program offers financial support of up to € 95,000 for each project in three stages.
In addition, top 3 winners will receive the following amounts in cash:
– 1st place: € 10,000
– 2nd place: € 5,000
– 3rd place: € 2,500
– 5 theme awards: each € 5,000 (total: € 25,000)
– All expenses of top-3 startups to represent Azerbaijan in Grand Final will be covered.
The program held annually since 2014 takes place in Azerbaijan for the second time. Among 46 countries worldwide, Azerbaijan has received 83 projects this year, which is the record number in the history of “ClimateLaunchpad”.
Last year, the world's largest “cleantech” program, “ClimateLaunchpad”, was run in 35 countries and 13 startups from Azerbaijan got accepted and went through 10 weeks of acceleration program. The top-3 startups of National Final represented Azerbaijan in the Grand Final and one of them made into top 15 startups among the 105 startups. Currently, they are developing their projects in “Greenhouse” incubation program in Edinburg. Reyhan Jamalova (founder of “Rainergy” project) started to think on her business idea when she decided to join “ClimateLaunchpad” and her project was selected for the program. She further developed her project under “ClimateLaunchpad” program and became the winner in the nomination of “Audience Favorite Startup” in National Final. After the program, she participated in the Global Entrepreneurship Summit together with Leyla Taghizada, co-founder of the “Sil”., through the ongoing mentorship of “ClimateLaunchpad” and was praised by Ivanka Trump. Finally, Reyhan Jamalova was listed by Forbes as one of the youngest inventors and entrepreneurs of 2018 (Forbes Under 30).
Notably, “Social Innovation Lab” (Sil.) innovation center is the official organizer of “ClimateLaunchpad” in Azerbaijan and “Azerkosmos” JSC and EY Azerbaijan are key partners (Gold Sponsors). “Barama” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center is the bronze sponsor of the program.
“Ozsut” restaurants provided catering services during the project and media support was provided by Technote Media, Edumap and Real TV. French-Azerbaijani University and SUP accelerator acted as venue partners.
For detailed information visit https://climatelaunchpad.org/countries/azerbaijan/
For more information, please contact news@mcs.az
The leader of the mobile communication industry, the largest taxpayer and the biggest investor of the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan Azercell Telecom LLC was founded in 1996. With 48% share of Azerbaijan’s mobile telecom market Azercell’s network covers 80% of the territory (excluding 20% of the occupied territories) and 99.8% of population of the country. Currently, 4.5 million subscribers choose Azercell services. Azercell has pioneered an important number of innovations in Azerbaijan, including GSM technology, advance payment system, mobile internet services, Metro coverage, 24/7 call centre service, 7 day/week Front Office service, M2M services, one-stop-shopping approach Azercell Express offices, mobile customer services, Online Customer Care and Social Media Customer Care services, mobile e-signature service “ASAN Imza” etc. Azercell deployed first 4G – LTE services in Azerbaijan in 2012. According to the results of mobile network quality and wireless coverage mapping surveys by international systems, Azercell’s network demonstrated the best results among the mobile operators of Azerbaijan. Azercell is the only company in Azerbaijan and CIS region which has been awarded Gold Certificate of International “Investors in People” Standard.
