We were so excited to attend Web Summit 2020 as impact investors!
The event ran online between 2 – 4 December. More than 100,000 attendees from 168 countries tuned in to hear from speakers re-envisioning what the world around us can look like.
One of our favourite talks featured Dr Jane Goodall discussing whether green tech can save the planet alongside Ecosia’s Pieter van Midwoud. We understood that restoring the forests and planting trees are two sides of the same coin; we need to do all that we can to strengthen nature’s resilience.
Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, also talked about his vision of re-positioning Greece as a centre of innovation. He elaborated on Microsoft’s plan to build new data centres around Athens as well as the importance of investments in renewable energy and sustainable tourism.
We took part in investor-to-investor roundtables and watched the PITCH sessions, where a panel of judges discussed the start-ups competing and voted on the most promising of these. It was great to see Xund, the digital health start-up that we had voted highly for during the PITCH group round back in October, make it through to the semi-finals.
We also scouted for start-ups with investment potential and met with many in the clean tech sector. We heard about innovative solutions for waste management, the practicality of living in energy communities and the role of blockchain technology in agroindustry.
The networking opportunities and scope for learning and development were unparalleled. We’ll be taking what we’ve learnt and integrating the know-how into Astydama.
We can’t wait to take part in Web Summit 2021!
Reach out here if you’re a clean tech start-up seeking investment – we would love to hear from you.