Testimonials

Here are some previous competitors, who illustrate the many facets of CleanTech Challenge.

Wasteq (2021)

My name is Damir Babacic, I participated in the CleanTech Challenge 2020-2021. With our team from Wasteq we drew up a business plan where we wanted to tackle food waste in grocery stores by offering them an artificial intelligence solution which predicts demands for perishables and in doing so reducing their scrap or overstock of products. It was an amazing experience for me and my team. We got to talk to a lot of very smart people from big grocers, so we gained a lot of deep industry insight into the workings of grocers and made good connections with some people and companies such as Colruyt and Carrefour. I would recommend you participate in the CTC because it will allow you to go very deep on a certain vertical that you choose and learn a lot about it. What I liked the most about the CTC was that I was able to work with smart people and get to know interesting people from big companies.

Damir Babacic (Winner of the Belgian and International CTC with Wasteq)

Wasteq (2021)

My name is Damir Babacic, I participated in the CleanTech Challenge last year (2020-2021). With our team from Wasteq we drew up a business plan where we wanted to tackle food waste in grocery stores by offering them an artificial intelligence solution which predicts demands for perishables and in doing so reducing their scrap or overstock of products. It was an amazing experience for me and my team. We got to talk to a lot of very smart people from big grocers, so we gained a lot of deep industry insight into the workings of grocers and made good connections with some people and companies such as Colruyt and Carrefour. I would recommend you participate in the CTC because it will allow you to go very deep on a certain vertical that you choose and learn a lot about it. What I liked the most about the CTC was that I was able to work with smart people and get to know interesting people from big companies.

 
Damir Babacic (Winner of the Belgian and International CTC with Wasteq)

Pupa Automation (2020)

Participating in the CleanTech Challenge helped us further develop our business model, thanks to the useful feedback sessions and the interesting speakers, who were more than happy to answer all our questions and provided the necessary insights we needed. We especially liked the pitching workshop at Mckinsey & Company, which helped us design the pitch for the finals and taught us some interesting techniques. We are also very grateful towards AFT & AFD for providing us with these workshops and events, which were great networking opportunities. If you are a student, who has an idea for a Cleantech start-up, we highly recommend you participating in the CleanTech Challenge. It will definitely accelerate the process!


Arne Van Baelen (Co-founder of Pupa & winner of CTC 2020)

Bili (2019)

CleanTech Challenge Belgium 2019’s winner was Billi. They had a great run at the London final, but sadly enough didn’t win. Their idea is actually quite simple and everyone has already thought about it: “Why do we print a receipt everytime we buy something?” After some research they found out that in Europa alone, we already produce one milion ton of waste by printing receipts! Billi wants to stop this by developing a platform to digitize receipts.


“I never thought that such a small idea on the kick-off event of the CTC would have such an impact on my career as a young entrepreneur/student. Thanks to all the interesting workshops and the guidance from the London Business School, we learned more about starting your own business and the risks and challenge.

Bili (2019)

CleanTech Challenge Belgium 2019’s winner was Billi. They had a great run at the London final, but sadly enough didn’t win. Their idea is actually quite simple and everyone has already thought about it: “Why do we print a receipt everytime we buy something?” After some research they found out that in Europa alone, we already produce one milion ton of waste by printing receipts! Billi wants to stop this by developing a platform to digitize receipts.


“I never thought that such a small idea on the kick-off event of the CTC would have such an impact on my career as a young entrepreneur/student. Thanks to all the interesting workshops and the guidance from the London Business School, we learned more about starting your own business and the risks and challenge.

Demetex (2015)

CleanTech Challenge Belgium 2015’s winner was Demetex from Louvain-la-neuve. They represented Belgium in the global finals in London and went home with the main prize: a £10000 check.
Demetex’s idea is to offer to farmers fertilization maps allowing them to know the optimal quantity of nitrogen to use given the position in the field. With the use of drones, we can collect pictures of the fields and then treat them to offer a diagnostic to farmers. Thanks to the diagnostic maps, the farmers make economies
and reduce their impact on the environment. The Cleantech Challenge has been a great opportunity for us. It allowed us to gain visibility for our projet and to broaden our network. The workshops were really interesting. We had the chance to have great mentors coming from the cleantech sector. The Belgian CleanTech team has been very supportive during the contest in London. They organised everything so that we could concentrate on our work.