What the Crowd Did in 2023
Hello all!
We want to thank you for joining CrowdSolve for another year of championing climate innovation! Whether you’re an innovator, mentor, partner, investor or advocate, you have played a crucial role for our planet this year.
We received a note from an Innovator this week and, with his permission, have included it here. His message is a reminder of the impact we are all here to create:
I would like to express my gratitude to the entire team at CrowdSolve for unwavering support that my startup is receiving. From enrollment into your first ideate bootcamp, Special Commendation Award to winning the pitching competition last Thursday are great things that shall forever remain part of the history of Solis-BioEnergy. I owe all these achievements to CrowdSolve. You are indeed imparting knowledge to climetech founders on their journey to launching successful climatetech businesses.
Regards, Precious Mafunga
Precious is one of 170 Innovators who are now received support through CrowdSolve! And we’re growing our capacity to support 1,000s more Innovators in the future.
Please enjoy this recap of some (of many) amazing things that happened in the Crowd this year:
Let's start with some Innovator wins...
⚡️ Brian Smoliak received a $650K SBIR grant from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (link)
🪰 Maya Zaken was accepted to the inaugural beVisioneers Fellowship Program funded by Mercedez-Benz (link)
☔️ Deirdre Horan launched her line of umbrellas made of ocean-bound plastic with over 200 orders on Kickstarter (link)
📣 Srdjan Pavelic launched the Aloha Kinnekt - a CleanTech portable smart speaker on Indiegogo (still open!) (link)
🏆 Precious Mafunga received the Future United Futurist Special Commendation Award - the award was received by his bootcamp facilitator, Jack Fritzinger at NY Climate Week (link)
☀️ Simon Julien was accepted into the Techstars Energy Accelerator, received a $500K grant from the U.S. DOE and was a finalist in the CCIA award finals (nominated by CrowdSolve!) (link)
🔁 Pure Rosy, Dri Umbrellas and InGarden are selling their products on fellow CrowdSolve Innovator’s platform, Simple Switch (link)
🏅 Aaron Fitzgerald became a finalist at the GreenBiz VERGE Pitch Competition! As an amplifying partner this year, CrowdSolve was able to nominate founders for the pitch competition. (link)
🇦🇪 Naphtali Obed Akudung joined the Civil Society Youth Representative Steering Committee, United Nations Department of Global Communications (CSYRSC-UNDGC) 2023 - He ended the year attending COP28 in Dubai (link)
Plus many more that aren’t included here. Congratulations to everyone on an incredible year of progress!
If you have a celebration to share, we want to know. Click here to let us know!
Now, a look at CrowdSolve's 2023 in Numbers
170
Climate Innovators are now being supported through CrowdSolve!! 🎉
(up from 59 last year)
31
Innovators completed Bootcamps and Mini Camps this year
44
Innovators shared their climate innovations across 5 pitch events and won over $5,000 in awards through our non-profit partner, 1000 Gretas.
18
Grants were issued to CrowdSolve Innovators through 1000 Gretas!
$450,000
In funding was received through CrowdSolve pre-seed round! (with over $330K coming from the community round on Wefunder)
1
New version of the CrowdSolve Platform launched in July! Bringing a whole new set of features to simplify the Innovator journey.
14
Workshops and AMA sessions were hosted on topics ranging from funding to mentorship and daily habits for success. Event recordings can be found here.
2
Podcasts with Co-founders Tim Wolters & Leah Bowes were published! Check out Future Days and Upstream for the interviews.
23
New Blox were released in the ‘TEST’ stage of content on the platform!
96
Mentors joined the Crowd this year! Each are available (and ready) to help Innovators! Learn how one mentor, Abraham Mathew, has supported Innovators this year.
40+
Partnerships with accelerators, prizes, and universities. And we’re still growing! Learn more about partnerships here.
2024, we're ready for you!
With love,
Leah, Tim, Amanda, Brandon, Rob, Naphtali and Kenzie 💚