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GLOBAL FORUM 2018 

Highlights


January 27-28, 2018


Cleantech Open’s US National Accelerator Grand Prize of $50,000 goes to Inovues of Houston, Texas; and Saathi Eco Innovations of India takes home the 2017 Global Award in the Global Cleantech Innovation Programme (GCIP).

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—February 2, 2018—The Cleantech Open (www.cleantechopen.org), the world’s largest accelerator of early-stage clean-technology companies, announced the winners of the Cleantech Open awards for its US National Accelerator, Global Ideas competition, and Global Cleantech Innovation Programme. For the first time since Cleantech Open was established in 2005, the Global Forum, the program’s capstone event, was held outside the Bay Area together with Cleantech Open’s new parent organization, LACI (LA Cleantech Incubator).

Thought leaders from the cleantech industry shared insights on the current and future state of innovation, including Matt Petersen, LACI President and CEO, Robert Weisenmiller, Chair of the California Energy Commission; Sarah Colao Wallach, COO at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center; Ira Ehrenpreis, Managing Partner at DBL Partners; Xavier Helgesen, CEO & Co-Founder at Off.Grid:Electric; and Marion Enderlein, World Alliance Director at Solar Impulse Foundation.

The Cleantech Open Global Ideas program is a global search for the most promising clean-technology ideas, held annually in conjunction with Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW). The Global Cleantech Innovation Programme (GCIP) is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and implemented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in partnership with Cleantech Open, the world’s largest startup accelerator for clean and renewable technology. 

Find more on winning startups here.

For more on the Global Ideas winners and runner-ups, continue here.

Below are some highlights from Global Forum 2018: