Students compete to clean up business
Tomorrow’s business leaders are pitching innovative plans to develop and exploit “clean” technology to tackle pollution and energy efficiency in business at the CleanTech Challenge 2010.
Fifteen teams, from business schools and technical universities across Europe, will compete at the two-day London Business School event on 22 and 23 April, for the chance to win £5,000 and gain invaluable feedback from venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and potential investors.
Now in its second year, the idea for CleanTech Challenge was conceived by London Business School and University College London to foster innovation in clean technology and cooperation between students with business and technical backgrounds. It aims to facilitate the development of clean technology ideas from a concept stage to a point when they will be ready to enter the clean technology market.
CleanTech refers to any technology aimed at preventing or cleaning up pollution, such as composting, recycling, energy efficiency and renewables development.
The final teams were selected from an initial pool of eighty-one entries. The finalists are from Imperial College London, London Business School, University College London, University of Cambridge, London School of Economics, London City University, Hult International Business School, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School (Belgium), Politecnico di Milano Business School (Italy), University of Arizona (USA), IESE Business School (Spain) and Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), North-West University (South Africa) and University of Gothenburg.
London Business School’s Dean, Sir Andrew Likierman, said: “I am proud to support the CleanTech Challenge 2010. This unique platform encourages and enables top graduate business and engineering students to take innovative clean technology ideas from the concept phase into viable seed funding plans. Together with University College London, London Business School looks forward to welcoming Europe's top students to the Challenge."
The student teams will receive mentoring from experienced professionals and access to exclusive seminars to learn about current opportunities in the CleanTech field from leading corporate executives. They will also find out about what venture capitalists and angel investors look for in an investment idea.
The event is sponsored by BCG and Gimv, an independent investment company from Belgium, and supported by Skipso.
Also involved in the CleanTech Challenge 2010 are representatives from The Environmental Parliament, Clean World Capital, Europlasma Group, Solar Century, Conduit Ventures, Environmental Technologies Fund, Clean Capital Network, Conservation Finance International and Turquoise Associates and The Carbon Trust.