Networking Opportunities for Climate Start-ups
Ecothon Alumni at the Global Startup Festival ComeUp 2023

Since 2019, HSF has been cooperating with the Seoul-based partner – ASEIC – in organising Ecothon - a series of annual competitions featuring training and coaching sessions for start-ups with sustainable business models in the ASEAN region. In the last 5 years, a network of more than 200 start-ups, start-up support organisations and relevant ministries in 7 countries has been developed within the framework of this Ecothon programme. In November 2023, HSF and ASEIC jointly organised a study trip for 22 alumni within this network to Seoul to enable them to engage in an interregional and global network.

Group photo after the pitching session

HSF

Similar to the networking event in 2022, this year, the Ecothon alumni were invited to the Global Startup Festival ComeUp where they had a chance to network with and to pitch their sustainable business models to many innovators, experts and potential investors from around the world. The pitching session took place on the Global Stage of ComeUp 2023 and attracted huge attention of ComeUp participants and visitors. Team Sikai from the Philippines convincingly won the first prize of the pitching session at ComeUp with the solution for reforestation using drone and seedball technology. In addition, the study trip also offered the participants a great opportunity to broaden their knowledge through their participation in various workshops, for example “Startups Community Inspired by Human Nature, Center for Entrepreneurship Education at Universities in the Asia-Pacific region", "Do you have what it takes to build a startup?", "Do you have what it takes to build a startup?", etc.

Ecothon promotion booths at ComeUp 2023

HSF

This year, five promotions booths for the delegation were set up at the Global Startup Festival ComeUp, including one promotion booth for Ecothon in general in which HSF and ASEIC introduced the works and missions of the 2 organisations as well as Ecothon programme to ComeUp2023 experts, participants and visitors. The other 4 promotion booths were for Ecothon 2023 in 4 countries, namely Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, and Philippines, in which Ecothon start-ups, focal ministries and local partner in each country introduced their sustainable business models and products, green start-up ecosystem and relevant policies in each country.

On the third day of the study trip, the delegation visited Seoul Startup Hub – Korea’s largest startup incubator which is financed by the Seoul Metropolitan Government - to learn about various financial and technical support mechanisms for startups that make Seoul one of the best startup cities in the world. In addition, a site visit was paid to the National Institute of Green Technology of Korea (NIGT) where HSF, ASEIC and Ecothon alumni had candid and in-depth discussions with startups, researchers and policy makers within the network of the National Institute of Green Technology of Korea (NIGT), which provided Ecothon start-ups, focal ministries and local partners with a lot of food for thought and opened up opportunities for collaboration and growth.