Image courtesy of SVG Ventures|THRIVE
Winners have been announced for the 2023 THRIVE Global Impact Challenge, which aims to identify innovative startups poised to tackle the challenges across four key themes: Soil health & biodiversity, increasing food security, reducing & offsetting GHG emissions and water management & quality
The challenge, which is put on by SVG Ventures|THRIVE, a global agrifood investment and innovation platform, had 25 finalists that were selected from an applicant pool of 912 startups from across 87 countries. Following a comprehensive evaluation process in collaboration with THRIVE’s corporate partners four category winners were selected in addition to the overall challenge winner. Recognition awards were also presented to the top Female Founder and the People’s Choice Award Winner.
The 2023 winners are:
- UCROP.IT was named the Overall Challenge Winner of the 2023 THRIVE Global Impact Challenge as well as the winner of the Reducing and Offsetting GHG Emissions category. UCROP.IT from the United States enables verified sustainable agriculture on a global scale to be shared amongst farmers and companies.
- Solena Ag also from the United States took home the prize for the Soil Health & Biodiversity category. Solena harnesses the power of the soil microbiome to create personalized, data-driven agriculture.
- LiVA Bio Technologies secured the Increasing Food Security Award. The Israeli startup more than doubles fresh-produce shelf-life, using patented pre-biotic inserts applied to the packaging for less than $0.02 per insert.
- Livestock Water Recycling scooped the top prize for the Water Management & Quality category. Based out of Canada LWR is cleaning the worlds wastewater by transforming biomass from livestock and food production into RNG, carbon offsets, and natural fertilizers enabling food producers to maximize profits and their ESG.
- Nigerian startup Airsmat was named the People’s Choice winner. Airsmat is empowering African farmers with tech for higher yields, sustainability, and climate resilience. Transforming agriculture for a brighter future.
- Tatiana Estevez Carlucci, CEO of Canadian company Permalution, secured the Female Founder Award. Permalution has developed climate adaptation technology using fog and clouds and are on a mission to democratize a new water source.
The winners were announced earlier this month at the THRIVE Global Impact Summit, which took place at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Santa Clara, California. In addition to the startup pitches the summit featured themed panel discussions, keynotes from U.S. Department of Agriculture Under Secretary for Farm Production & Conservation, Robert Bonnie, as well as Anantha Desikan, Chief Innovation & Technology Officer at ICL, who were the headline partner for the event as well as multiple industry networking opportunities.
The Challenge, which is aligned with the UN Sustainability Goals, was the culmination of a 10-month search.