Visa Foundation and Village Capital have announced their latest equity-free investment of 125,000 US dollars into 11 women-led sustainability as part of the Greentech Europe 2023 programme.
Now in its second year, the programme has supported over 135 women-led ventures dedicated to developing innovative solutions addressing climate change within and beyond Europe.
The programme has successfully channeled a cumulative investment of 550,000 US dollars into over 50 women-led sustainability start-ups spanning 17 European countries, a move that continues to reinforce its commitment to advocate for women-led ventures.
The participating entrepreneurs immersed themselves in a series of technical workshops, mentorship provided by key climate stakeholders, and investment analysts’ coaching, all of which prepared them to assess each other’s ventures from an investor’s standpoint leveraging Village Capital’s renowned evaluation methodology.
The total investment of 125,000 US dollars was distributed among all 11 ventures, with allocations ranging from 30,000 US dollars to 5,000 US dollars based on their peer rankings. The 11 start-ups were awarded as follows:
The start-up that received 30,000 US dollars is:
- xtonnes (London, UK) enables product-led businesses to decarbonize using carbon action software.
The start-up that received 25,000 US dollars is:
- The Octopus Club (London, UK) is a secondhand peer-to-peer marketplace to buy and sell maternity, baby, and children’s items, including clothing, toys, and accessories.
The start-up that received 15,000 US dollars is:
- Parallel Carbon (Manchester, UK) develops the world’s most capital-efficient direct air carbon capture technology, providing hope in the face of climate fear.
The start-ups that received 10,000 US dollars are:
- WEO (Luxembourg, Luxembourg) provides unbiased environmental analytics for all using data from space and AI.
- Seaweed Generation (Glasgow, UK) uses solar-powered autonomous robots to sink Sargassum to depths of more than 4,000 meters, sequestering carbon for 1,000+ years on the deep ocean floor.
- SOLIDU (Vilnius, Lithuania) creates ethical, innovative, and waterless beauty products in 100 per cent backyard-compostable boxes.
The start-ups that received 5,000 US dollars are:
- Impacbytes (Amsterdam, Netherlands) bridges the gap between sustainable brands and consumers by making product sustainability data accessible and utilizing network effects to make more sustainable products easier to find.
- PlanetAI Space (Barcelona, Spain) discovers and measures the attribution and impact of greenhouse gasses in the planet’s ecosystems using state-of-the-art satellite technology, astrophysics, machine learning, and computational chemistry.
- Sirius (Amsterdam, Netherlands) builds a sustainability copilot for the metals and mobility sector critical for the energy transition to transform goals into tangible actions.
- FarmOn (Amsterdam, Netherlands) provides trusted independent farming advice anytime and anywhere.
- Measure & Change (Växjö, Sweden) extracts data directly from business systems and calculates carbon emissions automatically.
This programme underscores the commitment of Visa Foundation and Village Capital to foster sustainability innovation and promote the pivotal role of women in addressing climate challenges.
This content has been produced in collaboration with a partner organisation through our Global Visibility Programme. Our programme helps companies boost their digital presence and strengthen the thought leadership of their experts. Find out more here.
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