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Climate-KIC has announced that Dutch start-up aQysta has been named Europe’s most innovative clean-tech venture by a jury of esteemed entrepreneurs, financiers and business people in its Europe-wide Venture Competition.

The winning SME will receive €40,000 worth of investment, access to business tutoring, and media support to further develop its hydro-powered floating irrigation system that can increase crop yield up to five times and replace diesel-powered systems. AQysta’s product is designed as a sustainable, low maintenance, low cost irrigation pump for rural communities. The start-up’s pumps do not require any external source of energy, like fossil fuels or electricity, to operate and can be assembled locally, including in developing countries.

The competition was held as part of Climate-KIC’s annual Festival of Innovation that took place in Valencia, Spain. The competition showcases and rewards the innovation and enterprise happening on the European climate change scene.

Commenting on the winner and other finalists, Hero Prins, director of entrepreneurship at Climate-KIC, commented: “The standard of this year’s entries shows the tremendous dynamism of the emerging climate innovation sector in Europe. Start-ups are the best way to bring climate relevant innovations to market quickly. While all of them showed the potential to really make a difference to the world, aQysta stood out due to its fantastic global market opportunities.”

Energy-saving Nordic Power Converters from Denmark took second place with €20,000. The audience award went to UK-based Reduse’s revolutionary ‘unprinting’ system that lets you reuse office paper several times before it gets recycled. Reduse picked up the third prize of €5,000.

The 18 finalists were drawn from the winners of national competitions hosted across Climate-KIC’s 12 European hubs. The finalists were all drawn from Climate-KIC’s Accelerator programmes, which identify and nurture green entrepreneurs from concept to start-up. The prize winners of the Europe-wide competition demonstrated a scalable technology or service that will have a substantial climate impact.