To catalyse ecosystem action on the circular economy, The Circulars Accelerator, led by Accenture, launched its first cohort of circular innovators in February 2021. Cohort ’21 consists of 17 start-ups and SMEs that are innovating to reduce or eliminate waste and are ready to scale up.
In coming months, Accenture and its partners will support Cohort members in scaling their impact via advisory sessions, innovation coaching and brokering introductions to experts and investors.
Which agrifoodpreneurs are part of Cohort ’21?
More than half the inaugural circular innovators cohort are start-ups innovating in the agrifood sector:
- Deep Branch, a carbon-recycling platform that transforms carbon dioxide into high-protein animal feed ingredients;
- Hello Tractor, a tractor contracting platform connecting farmers in emerging markets to fleet owners via IoT-enabled software;
- Kiverdi, using NASA-inspired tech to convert CO2 into ‘people- and planet-friendly nutrients and bio-based materials’;.
- Maeko, with its onsite home and business composting solutions to cut food waste from landfill;
- Natural Fiber Welding (NFW), which moulds plant materials including waste into natural compounds for use in various industries;
- S4S Technologies, which turns farm food waste into value-added products using its own patented solar-powered dehydration technology, meaning produce can be preserved for up to a year without chemicals;
- SokoFresh, a scaleable, replicable cold storage as a service solution to eliminate post-harvest food loss in smallholder farmer value chains;
- StixFresh, which has developed an ‘easy peel and place sticker’ for fresh fruits that extends their shelf life, thereby reducing waste; and
- Wasteless, which helps supermarkets and online grocery stores ‘recapture the value of their perishable products and reduce food waste via AI-powered dynamic pricing’.
Get involved in creating a global circular economy
The Cohort ’21 members join a growing community of UpLink innovators benefiting from collaborating via the platform.
More broadly, The Circulars Accelerator is driving ecosystem-wide collaboration on circular economy technology and systems via its dynamic new Circulars Community Action Group on UpLink.
‘Circular’ entrepreneurs are urged to join the Action Group and get involved, sharing solutions, ideas, and fresh perspectives to design for circularity, reduce waste, and transform production and consumption processes, thereby helping create a regenerative global system over the coming decade: The Decade to Deliver.
What is The Circulars Accelerator?
The Circulars Accelerator, which evolved from the successful Circulars Awards, is an action-oriented program that supports circular innovators globally surmount barriers to scale. It is led by Accenture in partnership with Anglo American, Ecolab and Schneider Electric. The World Economic Forum and UpLink, a digital platform for ‘scaling innovation and driving progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals’, are key collaborators. The Cohort ’21 members join a growing community of UpLink innovators benefiting from collaborating via the platform.
Source: 17 innovations accelerating the transition to a circular economy I World Economic Forum (April 2021)