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BLUE TECH INNOVATION
Regenerative Blue Economy Challenge Winners Announced
The UpLink Regenerative Blue Economy Challenge has culminated with the top five finalists presenting their projects to a high-level panel at an inspirational online pitch event. Spearheaded by Wave, funded by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Economy and Planning, and in partnership with Uplink and the Friends of Ocean Action, the competition´s inspirational final event featured a judging panel including H.R.H. Princess Reema Bandar Al-Saud, Founder WAVE, Member of the Board of Trustees, FII Institute, and H.E. Faisal Alibrahim, Minister of Economy and Planning, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The winning cohort of will benefit from exclusive networking opportunities, targeted support, increased visibility, and a share the prize fund to further develop their projects. Winners will join a support program to scale their innovative solutions, backed by ecosystem partners offering business advisory, market access, global event opportunities, and financial grants and investments.
The 15 winning startups were:
CHITELIX (Tunisia)
SolarDuck (Netherlands)
Kind Designs (United States)
Rongbient Biotech Company Limited (Vietnam)
GREENOV (France)
rrreefs (Switzerland)
Mwani Zanzibar (Tanzania)
Blue Ocean Gear (United States)
SEA CRAS d.o.o. (Croatia)
Polychaeta (Tunisia)
Reefgen (United States
ATAREC (Advanced Third Age Renewable Energy Company) (Morocco)
Swiss Ocean Tech Ltd. (Switzerland)
The two finalists selected as winners, and to receive awards of CHF 100,000 and CHF 40,000 respectively, were Morrocon startup Atarec and Reefgen, from the United States. The 5 finalists were selected from a cohort of the 15 winning ´Top Innovators´, announced at the United Nations Summit of the Future in New York.
The Regenerative Blue Economy Challenge called for visionary solutions applying the best of science and engineering to deep ocean challenges, with the aim to help them realize their full potential. The competition was launched during the WEF Special Meeting on Global Collaboration, Growth, and Energy for Development in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on 28 April, 2024. The 15 winning solutions were chosen out of 200 submissions from startups around the world. Focus areas included mitigating marine pollution, building ocean resilience, advancing ocean-based climate solutions, harnessing ocean knowledge, and leveraging frontier technologies.
