Over €180,000 awarded to initiatives that make the world a better place at ImpactFest
November 7, 2023
The Hague, November 7, 2023 – The eighth edition of ImpactFest at the Fokker Terminal in The Hague concluded with an awards ceremony on the main stage. The Hague Innovators challenge winners were announced, who collectively received €22,500. In addition, the Rabo Impactfonds handed out several cheques with a total value of €140,000 to innovative initiatives. Pels Rijcken also awarded a financial contribution from the Pels4Good Fund of €20,000 to a startup promoting access to justice.
The Hague Innovators challenge supports startups and growing companies in The Hague that develop innovative solutions to pressing societal challenges, such as climate change and food shortages. With previous winners such as Naïf Care, North Sea Farmers, and Weco, the challenge has firmly established itself in The Hague’s impact ecosystem. The competition is organised each year by ImpactCity, a program of the municipality of The Hague.
These are The Hague’s most innovative entrepreneurs
The final of The Hague Innovators competition occurred at ImpactFest, Europe’s leading event for anyone looking to make a positive impact. The winner ‘Best Innovator’ with a prize of €15,000 is Feelou: this startup developed a unique pregnancy bra that grows with the changing body. The incentive prize of €5,000 goes to Wattrogen: a developer of vertical wind turbines for residential and urban areas. In addition, GreenAnt, a startup that supports climate action using satellite data and artificial intelligence, was awarded the audience prize of €2,500.
“I am thrilled to see that Feelou, Wattrogen and GreenAnt have been named winners of The Hague Innovators challenge 2023. We should be proud of that as a city. ImpactCity is one of Europe’s leading clusters for companies that combine doing good and doing business. Through this initiative, the municipality facilitates innovative sustainable entrepreneurs to start and scale up their businesses. And we see in recent years that more and more sustainable entrepreneurs are consciously choosing The Hague to locate.”
Support for innovative themes thanks to Rabo Impactfund
Rabobank has been a partner of ImpactCity since 2019 and together the parties support entrepreneurs in The Hague with a sustainable mission. Rabobank has been involved in the content of ImpactFest’s program for many years and this year used the event as a stage to hand out cheques from the Rabo Impactfund.
The Rabo Impactfund targets organisations and startups with an innovative idea that contributes to food transition, energy transition, or an inclusive society. Rabobank awarded a total of €140,000 to Fairm, VanHier, WeCo, Memsys, MycoFarming and North Sea Farmers at ImpactFest.
Improving access to justice with Pels4Good Fund
With a special fund, Pels Rijcken supports projects or activities that make it easier for people and smaller entrepreneurs to determine their legal position or to obtain justice, regardless of origin, position, or legal question. After a pitch round of the three nominees Visual Contracts, LISI, and De Leidse Rechtswinkel, the jury designated Visual Contracts as the winner.
