Climate-KIC, the EU’s main climate innovation initiative, has announced that Dutch start-up aQysta has been named Europe’s most innovative clean-tech venture in an EU-wide competition for its hydro-powered floating irrigation system.
The winning start-up designed a sustainable, low-maintenance, low-cost irrigation pump for rural communities. aQysta’s pumps do not require any external source of energy like fossil fuels or electricity to operate and can be assembled locally in developing countries.
Under the Venture Competition award aQysta will receive €40,000 worth of investment, access to business tutoring and media support to further develop its hydro-powered floating irrigation system that can increase crop yield up to 5 times and replace diesel-powered systems.
The competition was held as part of Climate-KIC’s annual Festival of Innovation which took place in Valencia, Spain this year. The Climate-KIC programme has provided a total of €425,000 in funding to Europe-based clean-tech start-ups
The 18 finalists were all drawn from Climate-KIC’s Accelerator programmes across Europe, which spot and nurture green entrepreneurs from concept to start-up. The prize winners of the Europe-wide competition demonstrated a scalable technology or service that will have a substantial climate impact.
Hero Prins, Director of Entrepreneurship at Climate-KIC, commented:
“The standard of this year’s entries shows the tremendous dynamism of the emerging climate innovation sector in Europe. Start-ups are the best way to bring climate relevant innovations to market quickly. While all of them showed the potential to really make a difference to the world, aQysta stood out due to its fantastic global market opportunities. I’m looking forward to seeing their pumps in action around the world.”
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