The Africa Grows Green (AGG) Awards announced winning projects during COP27 – the ideal platform to boost and celebrate sustainable initiatives.
The announcement came in the presence of Yasmine Fouad, Minister of Environment; Reem Abd El Meguid, Co-Founder of Istidama; and Emad Hefny, CEO of Seeders Capital, as partner and jury member.
Thirteen winners across four categories, representing local and international start-ups working in various sustainability sectors, were celebrated. Winning projects include five from Egypt; four from Africa; and four from the USA, Netherlands, Canada, and Spain.
Award categories include technologies that address climate change impacts, mitigation and adaptation; projects by women-led green medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); green finance for banks and investors, Research centers and non-profit institutions.
Emad Hefny, Seeders Capital CEO, said: “We received very interesting and innovative projects with solutions in Green energy and waste, amongst many others.”
Hefny added:” Seeders future vision is to create an impact fund to invest in start-ups working in four key pillars including energy, waste, air and water. Since we are well connected to many entities, we believe this is a good platform to start from.”
Reem Abd El Meguid, Co-Founder of Istidama and Co-Founder of AGG, said: “I’m very pleased that today we are finally celebrating today true talents and potential future leaders who are adamant about creating impact and achieving footprint for a more sustainable world”. And Added: “I would also like to thank the government entities, respectful ministers, and the sponsors who supported this initiative and made it possible to see the light in one of Egypt’s most celebrated platforms today.”
Jo Griffiths, Co-founder of GSA Africa, commented: “The Global Start-up Awards (GSA) Africa is about unearthing the next gen technology pioneers that can lead us into delivering climate change and development solutions that will drive meaningful impact for Africa and the globe.
Ramon Lopez, Distrito Digital Climate Change Program Director, said: “Solutions for the mitigation and adaptation to Climate Change should be designed with a global perspective but having an impact on the local markets. The winning start-ups fulfil this requirement bringing disruptive solutions from Africa and other international countries. Climate Change District, which I represent, is an initiative that is willing to help those start-ups who want to implement their climate change solutions for the Spanish Market.”
Hefny concluded: “We plan to commercialize solutions across borders and to extend globally through seeders investors.”
Over 200 local and global start-ups participated in the competition from all round the world including Europe, Asia, America, and Africa. The evaluation committee included 12 juries from Egypt, USA, Spain, and the Republic Democratic of Congo.
