Greenovation Startup Challenge 2016

Overview :

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 on key entrepreneurship and green enterprise principles.

The Generation Green :

The Generation Green (TGG) is an ambitious five-year campaign ‎(2014-2018) of WWF Nepal that seeks to strengthen the engagement of Nepal’s youth in conservation and promote smart choices for the environment. It aims to create a generation of Nepali youth, committed to sustainable development and biodiversity conservation that effectively engages and influences the wider stakeholders in conservation.

Action Plan :

Creating a nation-wide membership base of 500,000 youth, aged 16-26 years
Engaging 50 prominent Nepali citizens as mentors to youth and building sustainable leadership
Providing learning opportunities for the youth to build environmental and leadership competence
Creating and facilitating opportunities for youth to participate in sustainable development and conservation activities and build their empowerment in the process

Greenovation Startup Challenge :

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 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 Meet ups 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 2016
Meet Up I – 23 October 2016
Spark Talk II – 27 October 2016
Meet Up II- 13 November 2016
Spark Talk III- 15 November 2016
Startup Weekend program- 18-20 November 2016

Meet, Pitch & Team Up

The first day of the program initiated with a brief introduction from the moderator of 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 Treasure	Sisno Nepal,	Smart Agribusiness
Safe Tarkari	Walk for a cause	We care Pads	Hariyo Chulo

Learn & Work

The second day of the startup weekend was devoted on 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.

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 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.

The top 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.

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 significant role in economic development.

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.”

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

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 a MVP which was served to the judges to make them aware about the product that they have developed. Idea Lead: Suraksha Baral Team Members: Rijan Mulmi, Bharat Adhikari

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 furniture 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 colours. Idea Lead: Sampanna Shrestha Team Members: Ganga Shrestha, Loonibha, Susan, Ojaswi

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 fibre 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

The idea sprung from the hardship faced during 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