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Global Media
Email: media@tnc.org
After a pause in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 Techstars Sustainability Accelerator in Partnership with The Nature Conservancy kicked this week. Launched in 2018, the Accelerator is a three-month mentorship-driven program aimed to give startups access to experts and resources to help them rapidly scale-up technology that is solving for a sustainable future across food, water, and climate change. The Accelerator, now in its third year, will welcome 10 new entrepreneurs to Boulder, CO from around the world representing diverse backgrounds and ideas for addressing the planet’s growing challenges at this critical moment in time.
The 10 companies selected will receive seed funding up to $120,000. Over the course of the 13-week curriculum, participants will engage in mentorship activities and programs that aim to accelerate each business and rapidly scale solutions for people and nature.
“What if the brilliant minds of our world put their brainpower toward solving the greatest challenges facing our planet? That’s the question the Sustainability Accelerator hopes to answer,” said Niraj Swami, Senior Director, Conservation Technology Strategy & Enablement. “This year’s class represents some of the most innovative ideas toward addressing climate from sustainability insights that help consumers make better decisions to innovative tools helping conservationists understand the condition of our natural resources. The time is now to build tech for nature. The Accelerator aims to drive innovation to make the world a better place.”
“Our partnership with The Nature Conservancy combined with the our highly experienced mentors makes this program unique among accelerators. We are excited to welcome these ten companies to Boulder, CO to help them create a better future where nature and people can thrive together.” said Zach Nies, Managing Director, Techstars Sustainability Accelerator in Partnership with The Nature Conservancy.
The program runs through December 9, 2021 when the companies will showcase their technologies and pitch to investors.
The companies are:
Aclymate - Aclymate makes climate action for small & medium sized businesses easy, fast, and free. Aclymate takes the data businesses already have to account for their climate footprint and gives them ways to act.
Benchmark Labs - Benchmark Labs offers environmental forecasts for the agricultural, energy, and insurance sectors by linking in-situ IoT sensor data, weather forecasts, and asset specific information using their technology.
Climatescape - Climatescape helps people find opportunities to dive into climate through jobs, community, and investment. Climatescape is a community platform for people to learn about climate solutions and contribute their skills and capital for a sustainable future.
Elio - Climate change data is fragmented, inconsistent, and poorly documented, which is thwarting efforts to manage interventions and investments. Elio is building a data platform to centralize, structure, and analyse this data to provide big-picture climate intelligence.
Farmz2U - Farmz2U helps farmers farm better using data. With a focus on smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, Farmz2U provides digital extension services and market access to improve the sustainability and profitability of farming.
Finch - Finch decodes products' environmental and social impacts to incentivize consumers and brands to make better decisions. Using machine learning capabilities, Finch scores products based on a series of attributes and equips consumers with the right information at the point of purchase.
Gardenio - Gardenio is a new kind of digital garden club membership for new food growers with an app to get connected to localized alerts and plant care, tools to identify and address issues in the garden, and ways to connect to your local gardening community for support and celebration.
Influunt - Influunt provides water and flood risk intelligence to insurance, government, and asset owners using cutting edge satellite data and artificial intelligence for reducing losses and building climate resilience.
Igugu Global - Igugu Global is Africa's Green Deal Room. From the Zulu word for treasure, Igugu Global is a company accelerating the flow of capital to Africa's $1.5 trillion gap in sustainable infrastructure.
Renoster Systems - Environmental data collection is tedious and costly causing researchers to miss out on data that can drive further conservation and research efforts. Renoster Systems provides nature preserves with climate sensing information via remote sensing to fill that gap.
The Nature Conservancy is a global conservation organization dedicated to conserving the lands and waters on which all life depends. Guided by science, we create innovative, on-the-ground solutions to our world’s toughest challenges so that nature and people can thrive together. We are tackling climate change, conserving lands, waters and oceans at an unprecedented scale, providing food and water sustainably and helping make cities more sustainable. Working in 76 countries and territories—37 by direct conservation impact and 39 through partners—we use a collaborative approach that engages local communities, governments, the private sector, and other partners. To learn more, visit www.nature.org or follow @nature_press on Twitter.