East Ventures and Temasek Foundation launched Indonesia’s largest climate tech innovations platform of the year: Climate Impact Innovations Challenge 2023

On 1 March 2023, East Ventures, a pioneering sector-agnostic venture capital firm that has supported over 250 tech companies across Southeast Asia, and Temasek Foundation, a Singapore-based non-profit philanthropic organization that supports sustainable development initiatives, launched the Climate Impact Innovations Challenge (CIIC), the largest climate tech innovations platform of the year in Indonesia. This challenge provides opportunities for tech innovators to showcase their sustainable innovations in addressing ecological challenges and mitigating the impacts of climate change. The teams will compete to win a total prize pool of IDR 10 billion, which will be awarded to winners to pilot their solutions within Indonesia.

“We are thrilled to launch the Climate Impact Innovations Challenge in collaboration with Temasek Foundation. We believe startups and entrepreneurs have a critical role to play in addressing the environmental challenges facing the region. This program presents to provide the opportunity for innovators to showcase their innovative solutions to pressing environmental challenges. We hope that this initiative will inspire and encourage a wider development of climate tech innovations and solutions; that eventually contribute to a more sustainable future for the region,” said Willson Cuaca, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at East Ventures.

“With abundant natural resources and potential for sustainable development, Indonesia has a unique opportunity to lead the way in combating climate change. By harnessing the creativity of its people and its vibrant start-up scene, Indonesia can contribute significantly towards a more sustainable and resilient future. Temasek Foundation is happy to partner East Ventures to help the many good innovators and entrepreneurs embrace opportunities and work together to scale up their solutions to benefit the Indonesia ecosystem and beyond,” said Lim Hock Chuan, Head, Programmes, Temasek Foundation. 

Mr. Rachmat Kaimuddin, Deputy Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure and Transportation, Coordinating Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Investment, also attended the event to provide insights of the government’s current priority in relation to climate change and the green economy. 

“We need to keep reminding ourselves that Indonesia is a very strategic country in terms of the effort to mitigate climate change and grow this green economy. We cannot do business as usual as our atmosphere is getting saturated by greenhouse emissions. We want to do it smartly, which at the same time keeps the aspect of developing our economy because economic growth is still vital to solving other issues in Indonesia,” said Mr. Rachmat.

Mr. Rachmat also explained how building economic growth requires more energy use, which energy use has a high correlation with carbon emissions. However, the government wants to break the correlation between energy use and carbon emissions, which should not be equal to a 1:1 correlation. It can be achieved by incorporating innovations and technology to be better at generating and using power.

The CIIC 2023 focused on addressing 4 main ecological issues (tracks), including: 

1. Renewable Energy: New ideas, innovations, and technologies that can disrupt how we generate and enable better adoption and distribution of renewable energy and improve energy efficiency in a low-cost and inclusive manner for urban and rural communities.
2. Food and Agriculture: New innovative solutions to transform and improve the way we plant, produce and distribute our foods more sustainably, with methodologies and solutions that help to improve affordability, access, nutrients, as well as reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and waste, thereby, ensuring food security in both urban and rural communities.
3. Mobility: New ideas as new services, platforms, and technologies to support the growing demand for sustainable mobility and supply chains.
4. Ocean: Innovative solutions to utilize marine resources sustainably to ensure the welfare of coastal communities.

The Climate Impact Innovations Challenge will go through several main agendas until September 2023, which include: 

• Open Application (1 March 2023 – 26 May 2023)

CIIC is now accepting applicants from eligible teams, where only teams that have created the pilot to create a minimum viable product with the intention for commercialization are eligible to apply.

• Application Review (27 May 2023 – 24 June 2023),
• Announcement of 12 Finalists (June 2023),
• Mentorship (July 2023), and 
• Grand Finale (September 2023).

The launch of CIIC 2023 also featured a panel discussion titled: “From idea to impact: Navigating the climate innovation landscape”, which discussed the current state and innovations in the four tracks of CIIC 2023. The panelists are Philip Effendy, Co-Founder and VP of Operations of Xurya, Arden Lim, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of ARIA, Ernest Layman, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Rekosistem, and Farid Naufal Aslam, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Aruna. 

Interested parties can find more information or apply through the CIIC’s website at www.climateimpactinnovations.com. If you missed the launch of the event, you can watch it in the video below.