Five South Africans will be representing South African clean technology initiatives at the Vienna Energy Forum (VEF), in Austria, in May, including two top performers from the Global Cleantech Innovation Programme for Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa (GCIP-SA).
Each representative will have the opportunity to pitch their innovations to an audience of venture capital, impact investors and crowd funding platforms at a side event as part of the VEF – a biennial forum that explores twenty-first-century developmental challenges from the perspective of sustainable energy.
It provides a platform for debate on practical solutions to these challenges and brings together all sectors of society and participants from all over the world, thereby paving the way for tangible partnerships on the ground.
The theme of VEF 2017 is ‘Sustainable Energy for the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement’.
The South Africans who will be attending VEF 2017 include waste material rooftile developer Thevia’s Martin Ackermann; superhydrophobic and self-cleaning coating developer Coco’s Solutions’ Dr Corinne Greyling; Technology Innovation Agency executive Berenice Marais; GCIP-SA national programme manager Gerswynn Mckuur and GCIP-SA representative Petro de Wet.
The GCIP-SA combines a yearly competition and a business accelerator programme where Cleantech SMEs and start-ups are continuously trained, mentored and assessed on their business models, investor pitches, and communication and financial skills for the development of a more marketable and investor-attractive product and business.
Participants are also offered opportunities to showcase their innovations to potential partners, clients and investors, locally and internationally.