With our release of the SET100 List of the best energy start-ups of 2023, it can only mean one thing: the 2023 SET Award is just around the corner! But before we celebrate the latest cohort of innovators for 2023, we take another look at some earlier Start-Up Success Stories. Our latest snapshot into the world of energy transition and net zero focuses on two of India’s tech solutions reinventing the food and beverage industry and cold chain logistics, S4S Technologies and TESSOL, while last year’s winners, Modvion, have some exciting funding round news.
S4S Technologies: reducing food loss, empowering women, stopping carbon
S4S Technologies‘ modus operandi can be summed up through three pillars: reducing food losses, empowering women farmers and preventing carbon emissions. A ‘full stack’ food processing platform, the Indian start-up wowed the judges at the 2021 SET Awards, winning the Quality Access & SDG-7 category thanks to its innovative Solar Conduction Dryer (SCD) product and diversified business model. The SCD is a solar-powered food dehydrator that reduces moisture content in agro-produce, preserving it for up to 12 months without the need for carbon-intensive chemicals. S4S partners with women micro-entrepreneurs (mostly rural smallholders across India) and can then buy back these farmers’ dried products to sell directly to the food and beverage industry.
Established in 2018, so far S4S’s network of partners now numbers some 12,000, with 800 women entrepreneurs part of that network. Together, they have saved over 40,000 tons of food per year, and prevented over 350,000 tons of CO2 emissions. Their partners and investors include USAID, FICCI, the Shell Foundation, DBS Foundation (as featured in their off-beat promo video, above), FactorE Ventures, AgFunder, the Council on Energy Environment and Water, the climate change charity Ashden, and global non-profit Acumen.
TESSOL: Revolutionizing the cold chain, from ice-cream to Covid vaccines
Winning the 2017 SET Award in the Mobility Meets Energy Transition category, TESSOL (a.k.a.: Thermal Energy Service Solutions) is a unique innovation-driven venture focused on solving the temperature-controlled food and pharma distribution problem in India. But it hasn’t stopped there. Since being founded in 2013, the company has partnered with hundreds of customers, from the small and medium, like Swiggy and KiranaKart, to the most internationally recognisable, like Mondelez International. In total, its proprietary “Thermal Energy Storage” technology has helped to save over 3,5 million tons of food waste and 1,5 million tons of GHG emissions.
Its partnerships have also seen it deliver over a billion units of fresh food on four continents. Added to this, with its husband and wife team, the start-up has been one of the early drivers in inclusion and diversity within the climate tech start-up scene. We’re happy to say we saw their potential early and are happy to see them continue their success.
Modvion raises 125 million SEK
The winner in Clean Energy Generation category of the SET Award 2022, Modvion has just announced another milestone. The Swedish wood technology company has raised 125 million SEK to take its wooden wind turbine towers to market. Leading global wind turbine manufacturer Vestas was part of this round alongside Almi Invest Greentech, the European Commission’s EIC Fund, Course Corrected VC and Symbia VC.
Modvion accelerates the transition to renewable energy and materials by building wind turbine towers made from laminated wood. Wood is a carbon sink and, in Modvion’s words, nature’s own carbon fibre. Their designs completely replace the need for emissions-heavy materials like steel and concrete and, as an added bonus, are modular in design, meaning they can be transported quickly and cost-effectively. Already receiving support through the Swedish Energy Agency and the EU’s Horizon 2020 project, Modvion’s business represents the next generation of clean energy: renewable energy built with renewable materials.
Meet the SET start-ups in Berlin!
Feeling inspired by the success stories of Modvion, TESSOL and S4S Technologies? Join the SET Tech Festival on 28 March 2023 in Berlin and get to meet and support hundreds of innovative start-ups!
Source picture: Modvion
