Background
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), through Global Opportunities for Sustainable Development Goals (GO4SDGs) and EmPower-II initiatives, together with the Massive Earth Foundation (MEF), launched the LowCarbon.Earth Accelerator on World Environment Day (5 June) in 2023.
The Accelerator aims to support green start-up founders (including women led green startups) in Asia and the Pacific region that are operating in the sectors of i) plastics, ii) agri-food, iii) textiles, iv) cooling and v) renewable energy to build their capacities through online bootcamp and to facilitate their access to financing through an investor forum.
The online bootcamp ran from September 2023 to January 2024, with two sessions taking place every week: ‘Networking Tuesday', where industry leaders shared their insights and advice to the founders and ‘Skills up Thursday', where technical capacity building sessions were conducted, covering various topics including ‘hiring to scale’, ‘what investors look for in start-ups’, ‘growth strategies and scaling up’ and ‘ESG standards and compliance’.
Following this online bootcamp, the Accelerator is hosting the LowCarbon.Earth Accelerator Investors Forum in Bangkok, Thailand, inviting the selected young green start-up founders, including women start-ups to meet with the investors in person and pitch their businesses to access financing.
"The LowCarbon.Earth Accelerator is empowering and equipping young entrepreneurs in Asia Pacific with new green skills to accelerate the transition to a low carbon and circular economy. I am thankful to our partners, Massive Earth Foundation and UN Women through the EmPower program in this work. This year, 14 finalists will be pitching their innovative business solutions to investors. This is an excellent contribution to the Green Jobs for Youth Pact, said Adriana Zacarias Farah, Head and Global Coordinator, GO4SDGs initiative.
Objectives
The purpose of this Investors Forum is to:
● Provide opportunities to match green start-ups with potential investors.
● Provide training and workshops related to business management, clean technology and ESG to start-ups.
● Provide networking opportunities with relevant stakeholders for green start-up founders.
Date and Venue
● Date: 25-26 April 2024
● Venue: Alpha Room, 2nd floor, Novotel Bangkok on Siam Square
