At an event in London with investors, philanthropists, and Earthshot Prize Finalists, Prince William celebrated the launch of The Earthshot Prize Launchpad, a landmark moment for The Earthshot Prize on its journey to scale innovative climate solutions from around the globe by 2030.
Unveiled just four months ago, the online match-making platform, which connects Earthshot innovators with like-minded investors and philanthropists, has attracted 135 investors and philanthropists.
Currently in its pilot phase, Launchpad spotlights 25 Earthshot solutions from six continents, with funding needs exceeding £400 million. Launchpad offers investors and philanthropists access to a curated database of scalable environmental solutions and details of their current funding needs. Then, these funders can browse and discover potential matches.
Over the next year, the Prize hopes to triple the number of solutions on the platform by including stand-out nominees from every sector and geography, in addition to Winners and Finalists.
“Launchpad marks a significant step forward for The Earthshot Prize on its journey to scaling innovative solutions from around the globe and becoming a global platform for impact.”
“Over the last four years, the Prize has scoured the planet for the best environmental innovations. Now, with the knowledge we’ve gained from our annual nomination process, we are empowering investors and philanthropists to discover the incredible solutions in our network, while opening doors for promising innovations to further scale.”
Hannah Jones, CEO of The Earthshot Prize
To support even more Earthshot innovators beyond the annual cohort of 15 Finalists catalyse funding on an even bigger scale, once fully up and running later this year standout nominees from the Prize process – those that don’t make the final 15 – will also be added to the platform to help meet Earthshot’s goal of protecting and restoring the planet by 2030.
Prince William gives his opening speech at the launch of The Earthshot Prize Launchpad, Frameless Museum, London
Prince William speaks with Henry Obi from Helios Investment Partners at the launch of The Earthshot Prize Launchpad, Frameless Museum, London
Prince William speaks with Chris Hunter, Colorifix, at the launch of The Earthshot Prize Launchpad, Frameless Museum, London
The Earthshot Prize Trustee, Jacinda Ardern, chairs a panel discussion with advisor Christopher Hohn and Lanzatech's Jennifer Holmgren at the launch of The Earthshot Prize Launchpad, Frameless Museum, London
“Launchpad is one-of-a-kind because it brings together a diversity of funders – small and large investors, banks and asset managers, family offices, foundations and public donors – who can collectively meet the needs of the remarkable solutions in our database.”
“The Earthshot Prize is also deliberately business model-agnostic, and Launchpad will include solutions from all sectors and geographies. Whether it’s an African start-up, South American government, Asian advocacy group, or European non-profit, we want to showcase the best solutions that can help restore and regenerate our planet.”
Anuradha Bajaj, Director of Innovation Marketplace and Investments of The Earthshot Prize
An early adopter of Launchpad, Frederick Teo, CEO of GenZero, said: “A platform like the Launchpad will play a critical role of a catalyst in connecting investors like GenZero with impactful and innovative solutions that aim to tackle the pressing global climate crisis. Launchpad’s streamlined and targeted search process curates the available solutions and matches them to the investor’s needs, geographic focus, and risk appetite.”
Thanks in part to their presence on Launchpad, Earthshot Prize Winner Notpla has already received an additional £3.9 million commitment towards their recent £10 million funding round. Pierre Paslier, Co-CEO of Notpla said: “The Launchpad platform is already demonstrating real impact by connecting us with like-minded investors. As the platform continues to grow, I’m confident it will be a gamechanger for other solutions in Earthshot’s robust and growing pipeline.”
Launchpad is The Earthshot Prize’s next step in its goal to scale and accelerate the impact of environmental innovations that can protect and restore our planet. Earthshot Prize Finalists and Winners have made incredible strides in the four years since the Prize’s founding.
In fact, in the last month alone:
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Find out more about how The Earthshot Prize scales impact via our Global Alliance and newly launched match-making platform, Launchpad.
