Kenyan startups SolarFreeze and Ukulima Tech are taking part in the Clean Energy Accelerator Programme after being named among the winners of a global challenge.
The accelerator is the culmination of the Clean Energy Challenge, which was organised by What Design Can Do (WDCD), Social Enterprise NL and IKEA Foundation and hosted in five cities – Delhi, Mexico City, Nairobi, São Paulo and Amsterdam.
It called on startups, designers and students to pitch their solutions that rethink the production, distribution and use of energy in these cities, with 84 projects being submitted for Nairobi.
The two winners were Solar Freeze, a one-stop turnkey portable off-grid toolkit for localised food production, and Ukulima Tech, the agri-tech startup behind Nairobi’s Energy Food Nexus, which is transforming the energy-food nexus through design and innovation for sustainable food systems in Nairobi across all income levels.
These two companies now proceed into the Clean Energy Accelerator Programme, which is run by Mettā Nairobi. The four-month programme, which kicks off this month, aims to provide the tools to make these innovations ready for market and financing. Startups will focus on developing their social business models and bringing their innovations to market.
It includes online workshops, a bootcamp in Amsterdam, expert consultancy, networking events, inspiring talks and peer-to-peer learning.
“The topic of clean energy is very timely could not have come at a better time when the world governments are looking to more safer and sustainable forms of energy. We are happy to bring our global business acceleration experience to the programme,” said Maurice Otieno, general manager of Mettā Nairobi.
