ClimateLaunchpad program is taking place in Estonia for the 6th year in a row. Dozens of startups have taken part; some of them have not worked out, but some of them are more than alive and doing great! And that's exactly the story of a startup called EKOTEKT - team that is bringing to you a robot that will construct your dream home.
First, robot what?
EKOTEKT is a construction company constructing houses using a large scale 3D printer (picture below). Their vision is to create positive climate impact by reducing CO2 emissions in residential building construction industry. With their smart automatic construction technology, they create customized homes in far less time and far more sustainable and affordable price compared to conventional construction methods.
More about the team and how it all started
The founder is an architect, Abhishek Kumar, from India. He has lived and worked as an architect in Stockholm, London and Denmark. When living in India and Denmark, Abhishek started to develop this “3D printer building houses” business idea. His friends from Copenhagen, who have visited Tallinn, told him many great things about the startup ecosystem there and advised him to establish the company in Estonia. In the later stage, Abhishek applied for a startup visa, and his project was approved by startup committee as a Startup.
Abhishek came to Estonia in February 2019. He was attending almost all startup events, and in May 2019 he met his partner, Ville Hyyryläinen. From the Startup Estonia website, Abhishek came to know about Cleantech Estonia, their activities and the green ideas competition ClimateLaunchpad. EKOTEKT's idea aims to reduce CO2 emissions, which falls under thecleantech category. So he applied to participate in the ClimateLaunchpad Estonian program.
Why ClimateLaunchpad program?
Abhishek’s main purpose for applying for ClimateLaunchpad was to make connections and meet interesting people who are working in the field of sustainable production/services. Later he realized, that ClimateLaunchpad is much more than just an idea competition; in ClimateLaunchpad the team had the opportunity to attend a boot camp, many coaching sessions by startup founders, lawyers, professors and investors. In the end, the team also had training to pitch their idea, which turned out to be very helpful to validate their startup’s business model.
What the program gave you?
In theClimateLaunchpad 2019 Estonian finals, EKOTEKT received the 3rd prize. This gave the team the chance to pitch the idea in front of ClimateLaunchpad Global Finals jury members to win a chance to pitch in ClimateLaunchpad Global Grand Finals in Amsterdam. Fortunately, the jury selected EKOTEKT, and they went to Amsterdam in November 2019. Around 120 teams from all around the world participated in this event and EKOTEKT was among the top six finalists in Deep Tech Award category. All these prizes are very important to the team because they give them more confidence and valuable feedback from the jury members and a stamp of approval that EKOTEKT is going in the right direction.
What next?
In the ClimateLaunchpad Estonian Finals EKOTEKT, also won direct access to the Beta Beamline pre-accelerator program, which is organized by Cleantech Estonia. In Beta Beamline, they are receiving a €10,000 grant and mentorship. With this support, the team is able to setup their 3D construction printing production facility at Pakri Science and Industrial Park. At the moment, they are actively looking for investment. Their prototype is ready and soon they will be able to print sustainable houses.
Abhishek Kumar, founder of EKOTEKT: “Who has a green idea, I recommend them to participate in ClimateLaunchpad program because they will get skills and knowledge to turn their green idea into the business.”
Bring your innovative idea to life! Apply to ClimateLaunchpad program latest by 25th of April.
For questions about ClimateLaunchpad, write to Kadri Kaarna (Project Mannager) at kadri@cleantechforest.ee.
For questions about EKOTEKT, write to abhishek.archi@yahoo.com.
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