On September 18, BeFC won the highly competitive Good4Nature trophy awarded during the Summit of Minds to the best leading startup innovating at the confluence of nature and technology.
The Good4Nature contest of international scope is organised by Monthly Barometer, a uniquely advanced advisory boutique and content platform that focuses on macro analysis. Monthly Barometer partnered with Cargill, Federated Hermes, HEC Paris, University of Surrey, One Ragtime and Wow! Media to ensure the startups screening process and implementation of the championship.
Each year, the startups competing for the prize focus and contribute in areas such as increasing biodiversity, recycling, forest protection, or reducing air pollution, food waste and sewage pollution. The prize is meant to reward today’s forward-thinking emerging businesses who prioritise the reduction of environmental damage and come up with groundbreaking solutions to simultaneously protect nature while advancing economic growth.
The challenge started in March, and since then, BeFC has first been shortlisted as one of the 6 finalists for the prize. BeFC and the five other final contestants received an invitation to the 2022 edition of the high-level Summit of Minds of Sept 16-18. The whole BeFC team was delighted, as attending the Summit is in itself a huge accomplishment. This event is powered by Monthly Barometer, held in different outstanding locations and gathers first-rate contributors sourced from public life, politics, business, academia and civil society. The Summit of Minds is a “pitch-free” event, but the exception was made for the six contest finalists. BeFC enjoyed an official slot at the Gala to present the biofuel cells and pitch to the entire community.
Our CEO and co-founder Dr. Jules Hammond, as well as Business Developer Nathan Le Flao represented BeFC at the three-day event. Nathan and Jules attended the elite symposium’s workshops and BeFC is proud of their contribution to this exceptional network. Amongst the interactive sessions, participants could also engage in three-dimensional learning hikes. These sessions merged outdoor physical experiences with technical skill building. The first-level hike focused on developing leadership and decision-making, and the mid-level hike was a walkshop comprising micro-sessions animated by researchers, CEOs and a professor in behavioral economics. The most courageous participants discovered that the Summit is aptly named during the third and highest hike in which they experienced first-hand the effects of climate change on the Alpine landscape, accompanied by climate specialists and mountain guides.
The congress was centered around two main threads: 1. Key macro issues (economics, geopolitics, society, environment and tech) and how they are likely to evolve and impact investment and business decisions, and 2. Themes at the intersection of natural capital and great outdoors, and their fundamental contribution to our planetary, societal and individual wellbeing.
BeFC is proud to announce that the challenge reached its completion by selecting our biofuel cell solution as the Final Winner for this year’s competition.
Our team came back with the Good4Nature prize and a huge smile! As a winner, BeFC will also receive a year of coaching and mentoring with senior business leaders and investors drawn from the Monthly Barometer network, as well as complimentary access to the professional certification process of the IUCN Global Standard on Nature-Based Solutions.
We are also grateful for the opportunity to participate to the Summit as first-class guests, for the unvaluable training and the mind-stretching conversations and workshops.
BeFC wishes to congratulate the other five final contestants as well as all the participants for the drive fueling their mission to combine advanced technology and innovation to design a sustainable future.
Contact us at info@befc.fr to discuss how BeFC paper biofuel cells can provide a sustainable battery replacement for a range of low-power electronic applications.
Together, power the future with nature. ©
