Nepal Entrepreneurs’ Hub in partnership with WWF Nepal organized Greenovation Startup Challenge (GSC) 2016 which sought to nurture entrepreneurial ideas linked with an environmental cause amongst young, passionate entrepreneurs and startup communities. The event was organized to promote socially responsible entrepreneurship and welcomed participation from diverse sectors offering them a once-in-a-lifetime experience to turn their green business idea into reality. It provided a platform to transform innovative ideas to performing enterprise and assisted in the initial setup of their business. GSC conducted preliminary sessions to build a common understanding of key entrepreneurship and green enterprise principles.
“The Generation Green campaign is about appreciating and motivating young ideas towards sustainable solutions for the environment while inculcating leadership skills in Nepal’s young generation,” stated Anil Manandhar, Country Representative of WWF Nepal. “The Greenovation Startup Challenge is our maiden undertaking with young people using green entrepreneurship as a platform to engage more individuals in our broader mission to build harmony between people and nature.”
The Greenovation Startup Challenge was hosted at SAP Falcha, Babarmahal. One of the success factors of ― Greenovation Startup Challenge was the reach to the participants who were out of the valley, even though the target was inside Kathmandu Valley. Participants from as far as Nepalgunj came to participate in the event.
A total of 54 participants (40% female and 60% male) worked on 12 ideas for the GSC-2016. The top 4 ideas were awarded NPR 150,000/- each. Initially, the event was designed to award 3 best ideas with the seed money sponsored by WWF, but the enthusiasm of the youth and their ideas prompted Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) to fund one more idea. Such was the energy and enthusiasm generated by the event.
Pre Events including 3 Spark Talks and 2 Meetups were conducted over a one-month period, which included topics like Green Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship, Pitching, Customer Development and Lean Design, Business Model Canvas and ThinkDesign.
- Spark Talk I — 20 October
- Meet Up I — 23 October
- Spark Talk II — 27 October
- Meet Up II- 13 November
- Spark Talk III- 15 November
- Startup Weekend program- 18–20 November
SCHEDULE
DAY 1: Meet, Pitch & Team Up
The first day of the program initiated with a brief introduction from the moderator of the event, Mr. Anurag Maloo, Regional Manager for South & Central Asia with Techstars and Startup Weekend. The introduction program was followed by a Networking Session among the participants and all other stakeholders for the event.All 50 participants pitched their ideas in Greennovation Startup Challenge-2016. The participants pitched their ideas on Agriculture, Green product, recycle and reuse, Tourism, Wildlife, and Conservation etc. The participants voted for the ideas and out of 50 pitched ideas, top 12 ideas were selected.
Applicants formed a cross-functional teams to work on the selected ideas, which they worked on over the weekend.
Following were the top 12 ideas:
- Safa Pad
- Ground Apple
- Hamro Jhola
- Greenophonics
- Know your air
- Tyre Treasures
- Sisno Nepal,
- Smart Agribusiness
- Safe Tarkari
- Walk for a cause
- We care Pads
- Hariyo Chulo
DAY 2: Learn & Work
The second day of the startup weekend was devoted to mentoring from the mentors to validate their business idea. Local mentors and domain experts came throughout the event to coach the teams through the planning process. The team detailed their idea into a business plan. The team presented their ideas in front of the coaches for the feedbacks and comments. It focused on business validation, market research, growth potential, customer validation among others.
DAY 3: Mock Presentation
The final day of the GSC Startup Challenge focused on the validation and work on towards the final pitch to the panel of judges. Mock pitching session was held in front of mock judges which gave the participants the feel of the final pitch and also provided them with the suggestion where they can improve.
AWARD GALA
The award gala for the Greenovation Startup Challenge was organized in Hotel Annapurna, Durbarmarg. Mr. Suman Shakya was the Master of Ceremony of the event. Mr. Santosh Mani Nepal from WWF welcoming the guests and participants talked about The Generation Green Campaign of WWF, which is to address the need of time to direct youths towards green entrepreneurship that in a way directs grooming economic sector towards prosperity and in parallel engage youth energy towards conservation and sustainable use of resources.
Mr. Suman Shakya, co-founder of NEHUB provided insights on activities and background of NEHUB along with details of earlier sessions and selection mechanism of the challenge. He stressed how startup weekend helped youths to nurture their green business concepts from idea stage to market validation stage.
12 teams with varying green business ideas presented their startup idea to the judges. They were judged on the basis of the business model, customer validation, execution, and prototype.
Meanwhile, Mr. Anurag Maloo, regional manager (South and Central Asia) at Techstars talked about history and the mission of startup weekends in more than 156 counties across the globe. He explained how Nepal has been a pioneer in startup movement in South Asia and active to promote youth entrepreneurship.
On the occasion, Mr. Shankar Prasad Koirala, Chief guest and Secretary of Ministry of Industry opined that these sort of events motivate youths to startup their own business and be self-employed which has a significant role in economic development.
Mr. Bhushan Tuladhar, representing the panel of judges stated all ideas were competitive and urged all the teams to start their enterprise with passion. Finally, Mr. Santosh Mani Nepal from WWF closed the program with a promise to continue to engage youths in conservation. Mr. Hempal Shrestha from NEHUB presented vote of thanks on behalf of organizers to all people who helped program happen successfully.
The top four ideas Ground Apple, Tyre Treasure, Sisno Nepal and Hariyo Chulo were awarded on the occasion with seed money of NRs 1,50,000 each to help start their green enterprise by Shankar Prasad Koirala, Chief Guest and Secretary of Industry Ministry.
On the occasion, Secretary Koirala opined that such challenges designed for the youths of the country will motivate the foreign country aspirant youth forces to start-up businesses and be self-employed which will ultimately develop the economy. He said “Industry Ministry is ready to support the unemployed but visionary potential youths in building up their businesses. For that matter, a start-up committee has been formed under the Industry Ministry.”
WINNING IDEAS
The following four team were awarded by the esteemed jury members. Even though the planning was to award top-three ideas with the seed funding support by WWF Nepal, Executive Director of Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) Mr. Ram Prasad Dhital, offered the fourth winning team an additional sum of seed funding of Rs. 1,50,000/- on behalf of AEPC. Hence the four winning ideas were:
- Ground Apple
- Tyre Treasure
- Sisno Nepal
- Hariyo Chulo
Ground Apple
Diabetes and other non-communicable diseases suffer from diet restrictions. The management of the dietary restriction has been a challenge.Ground apple which is a vegetable named after the fruit is a substitute for high sugar fruits and vegetables with 90% water. It is highly suitable for diabetic patients. The increasing demand for the product in the market especially from the patients of diabetes and the opportunity provided by organic farming, the venture is looking towards creating a brand of ground apples as a commodity in every Nepali household.The team worked on the different iteration and came up with the juice as an MVP which was served to the judges to make them aware of the product that they have developed.
Idea Lead: Suraksha Baral
Team Members: Rijan Mulmi, Bharat Adhikari
Tyre Treasures
How do we recycle the products so as to increase the life of the substance whose life is limited? It consisted of using the tyres and another bio non-degradable materials in creative ways so as to use it on a day to day life and create business value out of that up-cycles old and reusable tyres to produce household and commercial furnitures such as seats and pet beds. The team is working on different sizes depending on the size of the tyres and in a variety of makes and colors.
Idea Lead: Sampanna Shrestha
Team Members: Ganga Shrestha, Loonibha, Susan, Ojaswi
Sisno Nepal
Sisno (Stinging Nettle) is the staple food of the Chepang community which is one of the most backward indigenous communities of Nepal. Sishnu has been used as a poor man food for a long time. In the current time, Sisno has been identified to have multiple health benefits where it has been used in powder, as well as fresh vegetable. It has also been used to make fiber where it is used as clothes. This project aims to commercialize the organic farming of Sishnu and diversify its use which will help generate income for Chepang communities and make it sustainable and profitable.
Idea Lead: Sujan Adhikari
Team Members: Sushmita Bhatta, Rabin Raut, Anil Bhattarai
Hariyo Chulo
The idea sprung from the hardship faced by the shortage of cooking gas and other fuels. Furthermore, a large part of Nepal still relies on the natural fuel like wood, dried dung cake and other local solution which emits smoke which has a negative effect on health and since most of the process involves adolescent girls, results in time poverty. Hariyo Chulo is a smart solution which is 20% more efficient compared to the old stove. The technology uses smoke from firewood as a fuel which helps in minimizing carbon emission and will find primary use in rural homes and hotels.
Idea Lead: Sojan Prajapati
Team Members: Sagar Kafle, Asmod Karki, Usha Silwal
The GSC-2016 was piloting event, where NEHUB and WWF Nepal partnered to bring in the process of enhancing the capacity of youth in the domain of Entrepreneurship and green enterprises.