Net Zero Challenge 2024 Launched, Offering $600,000 Investment Opportunity for Green Startups

The Net Zero Challenge 2024 will focus on three main areas: renewable energy and carbon neutrality; sustainable food and agriculture systems; circular economy and waste management. The organizers officially launched the Net Zero Challenge 2024 on the morning of July 16.

Building on the success of the Net Zero Challenge 2023, the Net Zero Challenge 2024 aims to establish an open innovation platform for green startups, helping stakeholders in the climate change technology sector. This platform will also connect corporations with green technologies, supporting founders in raising additional green capital to help early-stage climate technologies in Vietnam rapidly scale up.

The Net Zero Challenge is organized by Touchstone Partners and the Temasek Foundation, a nonprofit organization from Singapore, in collaboration with the Ho Chi Minh City Institute for Development Studies (HIDS). Participating teams have the opportunity to win total prizes worth $600,000.

Additionally, teams can receive investments worth $100,000 (approximately VND 2.5 billion) from Sopoong Ventures and Touchstone Partners, and non-equity cash prizes of up to VND 200 million from the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).

A representative of the organizers stated that this year's competition will continue to focus on three main areas: renewable energy and carbon neutrality; sustainable food and agriculture systems; circular economy and waste management.

Applications for the Net Zero Challenge 2024 will be accepted from July 16 to September 15, 2024. Subsequently, the organizers will select the nine best teams to participate in the final round at the end of November 2024.

To participate, teams need to develop a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) with the potential to scale or successfully commercialize and be ready to pilot in Vietnam.

Participants can be startups, research teams, projects of enterprises, or nonprofit organizations ready for a large-scale pilot project. Solutions already commercialized abroad but seeking to pilot in Vietnam are also eligible to participate.

It is known that the Net Zero Challenge 2023 received over 300 applications from 45 countries, with more than 30% coming from outside Vietnam. The three winning teams included: Alterno, with a low-cost thermal energy storage system using sand batteries in the renewable energy and carbon neutrality category; Forte Biotech, with an on-site rapid testing solution for shrimp disease detection in the sustainable food and agriculture systems category; and AirX Carbon, which won with a bio-waste-based alternative to plastic materials at a competitive cost in the circular economy and waste management category.

The Net Zero Challenge creates an open platform for climate technology startups to address urgent climate issues in Vietnam, paving the way for expansion into other countries facing similar challenges. This competition aims to promote a sustainable business economy in Vietnam, contributing to the nation's commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.