Tech Challenge 2019

The first edition of the Tech Challenge took place across 2018 and 2019. It was launched at our Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco in September 2018. It was hosted by the cities of Paris and Tel Aviv-Yafo, who committed to piloting the winners' solutions.

The Women4Climate Tech Challenge addresses three issues that are high on our municipal agenda: the Environment; Women's Entrepreneurship; and Promoting Technology.

Ron Huldai, Mayor of Tel Aviv-Yafo

We received 105 applications, which got rated by a team of C40 experts. The 26 best applications were submitted to an external expert jury, who selected ten finalists in December.

The finalists pitched their projects to a panel of mayors and senior city officials in Paris on 20th February, ahead of the annual Women4Climate Conference. The winners chosen by this panel, Elodie Grimoin, co-founder of Urban Canopee and Inna Braverman, founder of Eco Wave Power, are now receiving assistance from C40, our partners and cities in the next phase of experimentation and implementation.

I look forward to seeing the projects being developed and deployed here in Paris and in Tel Aviv- Yafo. Women entrepreneurs and tech innovators are leading the way in creating the future that we want and the future we can trust in.

Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris and Chair of C40 Cities

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Important dates

October 11, 2019: Applications open!

January 31, 2020: Applications close, 11pm GMT.

February, 2020: Expert jury selects finalists.

March-May, 2020: Finalists pitch to mayors and winners announced!

June, 2020: Experimentation period begins.

Why do we need the W4C Tech Challenge?

Technology and data are key agents to create and accelerate sustainable change in cities and meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. The Tech Challenge is a key action for C40 to support diversity in technology and innovation, where women are largely underrepresented:

Women only represent 17% of employees, 4% of software engineers and 1% of leadership positions in the combined science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) sector.
Only 3% of venture capital partners are women.
Just 14% of start-up investors (or 'Business Angels') are women.
Research shows that start-ups led by men receive over 16 times more funding than those led by women, and survey data suggests that this disparity is gender-based.

These inequalities represent a significant barrier to developing inclusive climate responses. They need to be addressed with tailored actions and tools to break down the barriers women meet in venture capital and start-up creation. The Tech Challenge is one of these tools.

Winning projects

Inna Braverman

Project: Eco Wave Power

Elodie Grimoin

Project: Urban Canopee

EXPERT MAYORS AND CITY OFFICIALS JURY

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Orli Ronen

Head of Innovation and Sustainability, Tel Aviv-Yafo

Monica Barone

CEO, City of Sydney

Anni Sinnemäki

Deputy Mayor for Urban Environment, Helsinki

Katarina Luhr

Vice Mayor for Environment, Stockholm

Celia Blauel

Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of Ecological transition, Climate, Environment, Water and Sanitation

Karla Rubilar

Intendente, Santiago

Fernando Medina

Mayor of Lisbon

Vi Lyles

Mayor of Charlotte

Veronica Arias

Secretaria de Ambiente, Quito

Finalists

Shir Esh and Liron Simon

Doris Sung and Karen Sabath

Project: InVert™ Self-Shading Window System, Los Angeles

Elodie Stephan

Project: Bocage urbain

Meiling Gao

Project: Smarter Buildings for Healthier Communities

Yael Gilad and Galit Shiff

Project: Solar Energy in the City

Shimrit Finkel

Project: ECOncrete

Marine Doquet-Chassaing

Project: ACCENTA

Anaïs Ryterband

Project: Pandobac

EXPERT JURY

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Taj Ahmad-Eldridge

Senior Director of Investment, Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator

Kevin Austin

Deputy Executive Director, C40 Cities

Allyson Kapin

Co-Founder of Rad Campaign and Founder of Women Who Tech

Christian Vanizette

Co-founder of makesense.org

Shana Krakowski

Manager of the Platform

Albane Godard

Head of Urban Lab, Paris&Co

Salima Maloufi Talhi

Program Manager, L’Oréal

Karen Weiss

Senior Industry Strategy Manager, Autodesk

Shaina Horowitz

Urban Tech Director, New Lab

Adi Ashkenazi

Project Manager, Green Label for Business, Tel Aviv-Yafo

Sabine Romon

Chief Smart City Officer, City of Paris

Other city programs

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