Wageningen, (Netherlands), December 2017. GreenTec Capital Partners is very pleased to announce that Boreal Light GmbH has been selected as European Food Startup of the Year at the European FoodNexus Startup Challenge. The European FoodNexus Startup Challenge is a food and agtech startup competition for companies from seven countries across the European Union that aims to offer growth opportunities through fostering collaboration with leading food and agri corporates.
The challenge is initiated by the FoodNexus consortium and organized by StartLife. More than 400 startups registered for the competition, with Boreal Light competing among the 15 finalists in Wageningen, Netherlands on December 13th. The finalists participated in a two-day bootcamp with the competition’s corporate partners including Unilever, FrieslandCampina, Nutreco, and others.
Boreal won the competition’s top prize of European Food Startup of the year accompanied by a cash prize of €50,000. Boreal’s innovative water desalination systems duly impressed the competition’s jury, which explicitly focused on business models and potential for global impact as part of the evaluation criteria. Adam Anders, Managing Partner of Anterra Capital said, “We unanimously voted for Boreal Light as the winner because of major impact on a global scale”. “Boreal Light wins the final of the European FoodNexus Startup Challenge, because it is an excellent combination of technology and sustainability with a vital impact in regions where the availability of freshwater is lacking,” said Laurent Genet, Corporate Development Director of Nutreco. Hamed Beheshti, CEO of Berlin-based Boreal Light said “…I am very happy that with the prize money Boreal Light won here, we can build a water kiosk benefitting that village in Uganda.”
GreenTec is very proud to see Boreal Light’s innovative solution recognized for its impact potential at international competitions. We see great impact potential in Boreal Light’s rugged and affordable water desalination systems, which have both drinking water and agricultural applications. With the development of solutions focusing on improving agriculture, we see great synergy potential for Boreal in the emerging African ag-tech sector. This competition marks the close of a very auspicious year for Boreal Light, who earlier ran a successful campaign on Bettervest to provide funding for two water kiosks to be launched in Kenya in 2018. Congratulations to Dr. Beheshti and Ali Al-Hakim on a well-deserved accolade and we look forward to reporting of Boreal Light’s future successes.