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A chance for Sri Lanka’s sustainability startups to shine on the global stage

06 Sep 2021

  • The 4Revs Innovation Challenge 2021
With the world in such a constant state of change, not to mention disruption, it is often difficult to plan for the future and work towards building a more sustainable world. Since the first industrial revolution, which used water and steam to mechanise production, humanity has developed at an unprecedented rate, with more and more innovation coming in and redefining how we live our lives.  With the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) and AI, we are currently on the brink of our fourth industrial revolution (the second industrial revolution was driven by electric power, and the third was known as the digital revolution), and along the way, it must be noted that many of us have lost sight of what it takes to keep our planet, and people, healthy. We have been developing at a rate that is simply not sustainable in the long term. Record-breaking global temperatures, increasing occurrences of extreme weather, and other ominous events due to the climate crisis have proven that our way of life is unsustainable. A more sustainable world is something that we greatly need to consider, and the United Nations (UN) has given serious thought to how we can build a sustainable world, developing 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for international institutions, governments, businesses, and individuals all around the world to work towards to create a safe, sustainable, and inclusive global society. These goals range from development-focused goals like addressing the urgency of climate change to developing clean and affordable energy, to socially-driven goals like eradicating poverty and achieving gender equality. [caption id="attachment_159654" align="alignleft" width="300"] Arteculate Asia Founder Enosh Praveen[/caption] The UN also declared the 2020s to be “the decade of action” with the UN and its partner organisations accelerating efforts to address and resolve critical issues by 2030. Drastic change is necessary if we are to survive as a species, and now is the time for us to make that change. This realisation is what led to the creation of the 4Revs Innovation Challenge, a global competition for startups, which aims to act as a catalyst for helping humanity solve its biggest challenges for survival. Brunch chatted with 4Revs Innovation Challenge’s regional media partner Arteculate Asia Founder Enosh Praveen and 4Revs Innovation Challenge 2021 Ambassador for Asia Sasmini Bandara to learn more about this competition, as well as to discuss startups in today’s climate and how they can play a part in a more sustainable world.  The 4Revs Innovation Challenge [caption id="attachment_159496" align="alignright" width="341"] 4Revs Innovation Challenge 2021 Ambassador for Asia Sasmini Bandara[/caption] Praveen explained that the 4Revs Innovation Challenge, organised by Colombian-based creative problem-solving network Socialab and next-generation leader network NELIS Global, was born mainly out of the understanding of the need for drastic change and to be a catalyst for startups looking to make impactful and address four core challenges that humanity faces: Food security (with the global population increasing rapidly, a food crisis is inevitable as we face a shortage of agricultural land and the escalation of human conflict with wildlife); access to clean water (given our current lifestyles, as pollution spreads, how can we source enough clean water for consumption?); natural resources (how can we continue expanding without so much waste and misuse of natural resources?); and affordable clean energy (moving away from fossil fuels to embrace cleaner energy without endangering livelihoods and the environment). The 4Revs Innovation Challenge looks to create a space for startups in these fields of sustainability to be able to grow and develop. The programme has partnered with corporations, social ventures, educators, public and civil organisations, along with other stakeholders across the world. The 4Revs programme aims to connect promising startups with its global partners to help accelerate the development of innovative solutions to the critical challenges humanity is facing by 2050.  Taking place on a global scale, the programme is open to startups across the world. Startups looking to apply would need to have a product or service that addresses one of the four core challenges of food security, access to clean water, natural resources, and affordable clean energy. After registering, all participants will go through an evaluation process to identify 50 finalists and eight winners. This process will begin after registrations close on the 8th of September. Praveen, who acts as one of the evaluators for startups from the Asian region, shared that there will be two rounds of evaluations across September and October. The finalists of the programme will gain access to the 4Revs platform which will offer them opportunities to connect with various companies and stakeholders across the globe. Further, the startups will also receive valuable promotional opportunities from 4Revs, which will present their solutions as a global case study. The eight winners will additionally receive one-on-one meetings with partnering companies of the 4Revs Innovation Challenge, to directly explore potential business opportunities as well as one-on-one workshops with three major investment funds; Village Capital, Yunus SB, and NESsT. Bandara stressed that participation in and of itself is important, saying: “This platform will help startups reach more opportunities and help validate your startup idea and what you’re doing on a global platform. It is a platform that will open you to a wider group of supporters, and even if you don’t win, you will still be open to a wide platform of corporations and companies who are interested in the kinds of solutions and services that you are providing.” She also added that while the 4Revs Innovation Challenge is for startups who already have a product or service in the market and must be a startup with an average annual revenue in excess of $ 50,000, she encouraged startups who do not exactly meet that criteria to apply as well, because while they might not be eligible to be a part of the 4Revs Innovation Challenge, it is possible that 4Revs Innovation might see fit to nominate them for other competitions or connect them with other different companies who might be interested in their product or service.  The survival sustainability startup space and Sri Lanka Sustainability is not a new concept to Sri Lanka, even if we don’t always recognise our practices as sustainability. Praveen shared with Brunch that while the sustainability startup ecosystem is smaller compared to startups ecosystems on parallel paths like tech and innovation, there is a lot of potential within the sustainability startup ecosystem, though many of these startups are still in their early stages. The Sri Lankan sustainability startups ecosystem sees startups doing incredible work centred around sustainability goals across a diverse variety of industries such as lifestyle, education, packaging, fashion, and food and agriculture. Many of these brands talk about the importance of being socially and environmentally conscious and educate their audience about why it's so important to choose wisely. Bandara explained that there are also accelerators like Good Life X who work with many of these startups to help them rise to the challenge of competing on the global stage. At present, the majority of Sri Lankan sustainability startups affect a lot of change and promote conversations locally, but have not yet been able to become a part of the international sustainability startup ecosystem. “Sri Lanka can’t be the only platform for these startups in the long-term”, she said. “And going beyond Sri Lanka is where the 4Revs Innovation Challenge can provide value to these startups”. The pandemic: Help or hindrance?  From a general startup perspective, Praveen explained that how startups have handled the pandemic stems from what kind of entrepreneurial thinkers are at the helm of a startup, how startups have been geared to adapt to the pandemic, and how resilient the startup is. “It’s no longer about which wave we’re dealing with because we have already got to know what the shocks are. Now, it’s about how to emerge out of disruption at a global scale and how to recreate a value proposition suited to the current world. It’s extremely challenging for certain startups, they have to do a 180-degree turn on whatever they’re doing and either adapt or die.” Praveen also shared that for other startups like those who work in enabling digitisation and enabling things like remote working or hiring, collaboration software and other tech-enabled, the pandemic can actually be something like a blessing in disguise because of the opportunities it has provided for startups to scale because of increased demand. The pandemic has broken down geographical boundaries. This shift away from geographical limitations was already taking place but the pandemic has proved to be a major catalyst in this becoming a global change. “You’re working with people over the internet, so now anyone working in Malaysia, Singapore, or the US, is almost equal. Now is a time where you can hire a team that is active pretty much around the clock, where someone in the US wakes up and takes over as someone in Sri Lanka goes to sleep.” Bandara also commented on the pandemic and its effects on startups, sharing that in the case of sustainability startups, in particular, it has put them in the limelight and given them the opportunity to scale because of climate change and other larger sustainability issues being highlighted by the global pandemic. “These issues are being spoken about on a daily basis now, unlike two or three years ago, and there are a huge amount of startups in the sustainability space who can help us to navigate the pandemic in a healthy way, and so these sustainable startups can accelerate their growth because most of their concepts revolve around expanding the values of a good and healthy life.” Applications for the 4Revs Innovation Challenge 2021 will conclude on 8 September. For more information and to apply, please visit www.4revsinnovationchallenge.com

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