Beamline Beta is the first Estonian pre-accelerator for cleantech startups. It is 4-month program for startups that are still starting or already are in the Business Model development stage. It is intended to help early-stage startups refine and develop their unique selling proposition and business model. Here the first prototype can be finalized and assistance is provided to obtain industry feedback. Beamline Beta is powered by Cleantech ForEst, Sunly and Ministry of the Environment.
Seven lucky charms were taken into the program. Who are these great people behind these brilliant ideas?
CompAct
Team CompAct got together a year ago when Egle and Kaisa found out that they had been working on the same idea without knowing it. The first idea on how to change the behaviour habits of a whole population was born during the biggest climate innovation summer school Journey organized by EIT Climate KIC. After winning Loomehäkk the idea got a kick-off and a rapid development phase started.
CompAct develops an interactive and motivational chatbot that helps companies and their employees succeed in reaching their sustainability goals and obtain the Green Office certificate. Offices consume up to 40% of the world's raw materials and resources. By engaging employees through gamification and providing small tasks each day, they help them form sustainable behavior habits and split this big challenge of changing habits into small doable steps.
CompAct keeps employees motivated by leading a real-life conversation, giving small individual tasks, reminders and fun team challenges. Employees can collect points, compete with each other and track their progress. CompAct helps the company build a responsible brand, increase teamwork and cut down costs.
CompAct has concluded pilot projects with 5 organizations: Tehnopol, Tele2, JCI World Conference, Elmo Rent 2.0 and Pakri Science and Industrial Park. Next step is to expand to the public sector by offering their service to educational institutions like schools.
During the Beamline Beta CompAct has a goal to develop the toolkit to a level that everyone who wants to use CompAct in their office can buy the product from CompAct’s website with just a few clicks.
EKOTEKT
Purpose of EKOTEKT is to design, sell and construct homes. Vision of the team is to make construction process completely automatic and development of the building only with artificial intelligence (machines).
EKOTEKT value proposition is to create homes that are much faster to construct, far greener than the average house but not being more expensive.
EKOTEKT is targeting homebuyers who would like to purchase a ecofriendly home but cannot afford the option that are currently available on the market.
The beginning of EKOTEKT is April 2019 but the main idea author Abhishek (on the picture above) is working on this field already since 2007. After he came to Estonia in 2019 he have applied to different incubators, attended many startup events, went to different universities and also collaborated with Technical University of Applied Science. Abhishek also participated spring-summer 2019 on the biggest green ideas competition ClimateLaunchpad and got access to the TOP3. During different startup events he met his other team members. So far EKOTEKT have made significant progress - just now they were in Helsinki to order robot which was the biggest challenge so far. Soon the printing of houses will start :).
Beamline Beta pre-accelerator program is designed to support cleantech startups like ‘EKOTEKT’. Not only the team is getting quick access to key industry experts and advisors but also gets access to entire cleantech ecosystem in Europe. Program also provides office space in the hub Port of Power, that saves EKOTEKT's rental cost and gives possibility to interact and learn from other startups.
EKOTEKT is working on minimum viable product (MVP) and looking forward to get investment with the help of Beamline Beta mentors.
GetElectric
GetElectric startup was born during TechStars Startup Weekend event in Tallinn mid-May 2019 when Ahti, Annika and Jimmie started brainstorming on how to support and grow Electric Mobility in Estonia and Europe.
Initial idea from Ahti was about converting combustion cars to electric, but they quickly discovered this was not feasible and with the help of Cleantech ForEst mentors pivoted to focusing on the charging network instead. The idea of building an Airbnb like platform for sharing chargers seemed appealing.
Today there are two members in GetElectric team: Annika with Marketing background and Ahti with Software Development background. They are still in idea validation phase and aiming at Scandinavian markets where growth of Electric Cars is the fastest (in fact exponential).
In Beamline Beta GetElectric is looking to reach a stage where they will get enough confidence on what they are going to build and sell, and lock on a solution actually getting a prototype out of the market. Annika and Ahti believe Electric cars are fun to drive, environmentally sustainable and going to replace combustion-powered cars faster than we think - this transition will be a huge and fast growing Business with a positive effect on the environment and they want to be a part of it.
Kibu.energy
Kibu.energy was born at the beginning of 2019 to empower citizens in the use of renewable energy by offering the simplest way to convert any balcony, terrace or garden in a solar energy generation and storage powerplant.
The idea came straight from the pain of the user: Gerardo, Founder & CEO, wanted to make the most out of his sunny condo. What he found were complex DIY kits and expensive plug-in devices, since solar panels and batteries are made for full buildings and not for apartments. That inspired him to create a simple, smart and affordable all-in-one, plug-and-play solution that would allow anyone — independently of their technical skills or housing type — to help decarbonising their city.
In order to realise that, Gerardo teamed up with a diverse and competent team. Andre has 16 years of experience in business, and 6 in finance and managing of Start-ups; Roman and Sergio specialize in power electronics and distributed power generation systems, combined they have authored more than 80 scientific papers and hold numerous utility models and patents; Esin leads the software side with her extensive experience working in the system testing industry; and Dmitri is the Head of the Power Electronics Department of the Tallinn University of Technology.
Until now, KIBU has been awarded at the Prototron Competition and developed extensively thanks to the EIT Climate-KIC Accelerator. They produced their first functional prototype last summer and in November presented their beta device at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona.
KIBU's next steps involve further development of the industrial design and electronic components, and, of course, making the most out of the amazing help provided by the Beamline Beta program mentors and partners in order to reach to market in 2021!
Local Offset
Local Offset offers companies and individuals a chance to offset their carbon footprint with local natural resources. Forests, plants, wetlands, and soil absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. That's why we must preserve them as viable and biodiverse ecosystems.
23% of the world's anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions come from the forestry, agriculture and land-use sector - caused by the intensive management practices used today. Local Offset is building a platform where all of us can support the protection and preservation of our natural carbon sinks and help us reach our climate goals. Local Offset connects businesses and private persons with forest and landowners who switch to sustainable management practices that increase carbon absorption and preserve biodiversity.
Companies that buy carbon offset meet the growing demand for climate-neutral services, and individuals can support the preservation of nature in their homeland or anywhere around the world.</