The authors of the two start-up projects to go to Amsterdam
07/08/2019 16:22
The authors of the two start-up projects to go to Amsterdam
07/08/2019 16:22
Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Within the framework of the project of the Regional environmental center of Central Asia (CAREC) “Water, education and cooperation” (Smart Waters), funded by the US Agency for international development (USAID), a demonstration day of the projects participating in the start-up acceleration program Water Solutions Innovation Lab was held.
Ten projects were presented within the demo-day and two top were selected. The main prize for them will be a trip in November 2019 to Amsterdam for the final of the international competition of "green" business ideas ClimateLaunchpad-2019.
– Smart Waters project is implemented in Uzbekistan in cooperation with the Ministry of water management of Uzbekistan and Tashkent Institute of irrigation and agricultural mechanization engineers. The project has been implemented since 2015 in six countries of Central Asia and Afghanistan, but such an innovative laboratory Water Solutions Innovation Lab or, as we call it, ID-Lab, has been created only in Uzbekistan. It was our trial run. We wanted to see how it would work, how actively young people would be involved. What we see today is the result of six months of work. Guys all this time, conducted research, honed your ideas, implement them in life, – says the project Manager of the Smart Waters (CAREC) Yekaterina Strikeleva (Almaty).
This start-up program is conducted on the basis of the Innovation and research cluster of CAREC by experts of the consulting company Green Business Innovation in cooperation with the international program Climate Launchpad. Startup accelerator Water Solutions Innovation Lab is created to support and develop business ideas and projects of students, young scientists, entrepreneurs in the field of water conservation, renewable energy, water supply in agriculture, energy efficiency and other ways to solve climate change problems.
At the Demo Day, the teams-participants of the startup acceleration program Water Solutions Innovation Lab made presentations of the results of their projects achieved through training and mentoring support since March 2019 within the acceleration program.
– This is the first initiative in Central Asia. Together with CAREC we have developed the concept of accelerator implementation. We managed to combine our experience with the international one, to combine the programs of Smart Water Solutions Innovation Lab (CAREC) and Clamed watch, which is considered the largest technological international accelerator, — says Saida Yusupova, Director of Water Solutions Innovation Lab.
As it was noted at the event, participation in the accelerator is not an opportunity to enlist financial support, but an opportunity to get interaction, to see and understand how others work. If we talk about innovations, it is necessary that Uzbek projects, startups leave, see the expertise, including international.
All participants passed two stages of acceleration. The main goal of the project is to attract the attention of young scientists and businessmen to the project, to teach them to implement business innovations, as well as to help them acquire skills that will allow them to implement developments in the future.
Many participants, coming out of the laboratory "on the field", made significant changes in their development to their product was sold. If this product does not solve any problem of the buyer, it will not be in demand in the market. This is the mechanism of working with the product on the market.
According to the results of presentations at Demo Day, the expert commission chose 2 best start-ups – VIOM (1st place) and Proteus (2nd place), which received prize certificates for a trip to Amsterdam in November 2019 for the final of the international competition of "green" business ideas ClimateLaunchpad-2019.
All other teams-participants of the startup acceleration program Water Solutions Innovation Lab were awarded with commemorative certificates and statuettes.
$ 1 | 12727.96 | +0.134% |
1 | 13781.84 | +0.459% |
₽ 1 | 139.46 | +0.288% |