Energy Efficiency Innovation Challenge


Meet the winner of the competition

Be the Top Start-up for energy efficiency!

If you have an innovative business idea or solution that can contribute to lowering energy consumption, reducing energy bills at the household or industrial level, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, creating jobs, or reducing demand for energy imports, we want to hear from you!

About the Start-up Competition

The start-up competition is part of Central Asia’s Energy Investment Forum 2021: Investing in Energy Efficiency. The forum will take place on 2 December 2021 and is Central Asia’s flagship event to enable private investments in the energy sector. About $400 billion worth of energy sector investment is needed in the region up to 2030. Governments acknowledge that public sector alone will not be able to meet those financing needs. The Energy Investment Forum functions as a key vehicle to attract investors to the region.

Pitch your innovative business idea and become the top start-up of the region!

Who can join?
  • Companies not older than 5 years with less than 100 employees
  • Operating or based in CAREC countries (Azerbaijan, China, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan)
How to apply?
    • Submit your application online here
    • Upload a max 2-minute video pitch highlighting the product/ business idea and how it contributes to energy efficiency
    • Upload a power point presentation of max. 12 slides presenting your company

The application deadline is
1 November 2021 (12:00 midnight Manila time)

Evaluation Criteria

The applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

  1. Relevance to energy efficiency issues in the region
  2. Unique business proposition to contribute to energy efficiency
  3. Technological innovation
  4. National or regional scalability

Process

Finalist Presentations during the Energy Investment Forum

The top 4 finalists will be given 3-5 minutes each to present and showcase their business solution/idea in form of a ted-talk during the Energy Investment Forum on 2 December 2021. The session will be moderated by former BBC news anchor Nisha Pillai. The audience will be allowed to ask questions to the finalists after their presentations.

Selection of Winner

The winner will be determined directly by the conference audience via a live voting tool. The finalist who gets the highest number of votes will be the winner of the start-up competition and will receive a prize.

Prize

  • Certificate and Title of Grand Prize Winner of CAREC’s 2nd EIF start-up competition
  • Exclusive feature of the start-up company on CAREC Energy’s web portal (energy.carecprogram.org)
  • Participation in the next EIF
  • Prospect for inclusion in CAREC’s upcoming green energy financing platform as part of the CAREC Green Energy Alliance (disclaimer: this platform is yet to be established and the time of its launch is unknown at present; certain criteria will have to be fulfilled to benefit from this prize)

Contact

Raymond De Vera (rndevera@adb.org)