Weco, BeeSage and Reprex named winners of Hague Innovators challenge during ImpactFest
16 November 2022
The Hague, November 15, 2022 – The winners of the eighth edition of the The Hague Innovators challenge were announced today. The Hague Innovators challenge by ImpactCity, an initiative of the municipality of The Hague, encourages startups, scale-ups, and students to come up with innovative ideas. The winners receive a sum of money with which they can further develop their innovative idea.
The annual program challenges startups and scale-ups to solve social issues around sustainability, energy, climate, food and safety. With winners from previous editions such as Naïf Care, Seepje, and North Sea Farmers, The Hague Innovators challenge is now an established challenge in The Hague.
Three startups to keep an eye on
This year’s finale was part of the grand opening of the largest impact meetup in Europe: ImpactFest. This is where hundreds of startups, NGOs, governments, investors and the business community gather each year who, like the winners, are working to solve global challenges. The winners were presented with their awards on the main stage. Judges from Rabobank, DOEN Participations, Euclid Network and UNIIQ judged the plans and pitches and, after an exciting pitch round, chose the 2022 winners:
● Startup prize (€25,000) – Weco: Develops solutions to produce electricity with waves in the ocean
● Pre-startup prize (€10,000) – BeeSage: Ensures The Hague becomes the first city in the world with fully connected urban beehives, enabling data-driven beekeeping for productivity and sustainability
● Audience prize (€5,000) – Reprex: Makes big data reliable and verifiable by providing reliable analytics and AI solutions
The Hague, a true impact city
As an international city of peace and justice, the municipality of The Hague supports and encourages startups and scale-ups working on innovations for a better world. Not for nothing is the city known as “ImpactCity” and this year was named the second city in the Netherlands when it comes to an attractive climate for startups.
As a partner of ImpactCity, Suzanne Wisse-Huiskes (Executive Director of Euclid Network) is involved as a judge in the annual challege. “The Haagse Vernieuwers challenge is a concrete example of how The Hague offers ambitious entrepreneurs support with access to capital and knowledge, so they can work on their innovations for a better world.”
About ImpactCity and ImpactFest
The Hague Innovators challenge is organized each year by ImpactCity.
ImpactCity is one of Europe’s leading ecosystems for organizations that combine “doing good and doing business. With ImpactCity, the Municipality of The Hague facilitates entrepreneurs and other impact makers with innovative solutions in starting and scaling up their businesses.
ImpactFest started in 2016 as an annual event where the ImpactCity ecosystem can meet in a casual festival atmosphere. It has grown into an international “must-attend” event in the world of impact.