Tech Challenge 2020

The 2nd C40 Women4Climate Tech Challenge will select women-led innovative tech solution for climate with a measurable impact to experiment them in C40 cities.

C40 cities joining the Tech Challenge commit to pilot the winning solution and contribute to the selection by participating in the expert jury panel, which will select the finalists, as well as in the mayoral and city official jury panel, which will select the winners.

Innovators, entrepreneurs and startupers selected to be finalists and winners will be eligible to receive financial or technical support from C40 and their partners, plus acceleration or implementation in C40 Cities. C40 support will be custom-designed for each solution, depending on the project’s level of maturity and the needs: acceleration; incubation; residence within the city; urban space for experimentation; co-design of experimentations on citizens/users.

The cities committed to pilot the winning innovative solutions are interested in the following thematic areas:

• Adaptation and risk cities response
• Healthy public buildings
• Green and healthier streets

For more information on each thematic focus and the issues they hope to solve, see the “Call for Applications” guidelines available for download from the sidebar on the right of this page. 

After a successful first edition in Paris and Tel Aviv-Yafo, the 2019-20 Tech Challenge has expanded to even more C40 cities.

• Los Angeles will consider applications for 'Healthy Public Buildings'
• Lisbon will consider applications for 'Healthy Public Buildings' and 'Green & Healthier Streets'
• Stockholm will consider applications for 'Green & Healthier Streets'
• Tel Aviv-Yafo will consider applications for 'Adaptation & Risk Cities Response' and 'Green & Healthier Streets'

These cities will only select one winner project to be piloted in their city. To review the 2018-19 Women4Climate Tech Challenge in Paris and Tel Aviv-Yafo, and information on past winners, see below or click here. 

To increase the climate impact of the winners of the Tech Challenge C40 has secured $50,000 in funding to be split amongst the winners and used to support their experimental phase. The support provided will need to comply with C40’s requirements as a 501(c)3 public charity, in that respect C40 will work with the winners to determine how utilize the funds for the purpose of the experimentation.

In March 2020, 10 finalists were selected to pitch their unique climate solutions to a panel of mayors and city officials. The finalists and their projects are:

• Johana Sanabria (Bogota, Colombia) - Agua Urbana

• Meiling Gao & Vivian Bi (California, USA) - Clarity

• Elizabeth Ledesma & Monica Pulido (Barcelona, Spain) - Ecolocal Market 

• Cristina Mota Capitao & Rosário Sommer (Lisbon, Portugal) - Generosa

• Doris Sung & Karen Sabath (Los Angeles, USA) - InVert™ Self-Shading Windows

• Anai Green (Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel) Lumiweave

• Lorena Gordillo Dagallier (Cambridge, UK) - Open-seneca

• Yael Arbel (Tel Aviv-Yafo) - ReTake

• Marquidia Pacheco (Mexico City, Mexico) - The Fourth State of Matter

• Natalia Mykhaylova (Toronto, Canada) - WeavAir

Four inspirational women have been announced as the winners of the Women4Climate Tech Challenge 2020. The winners are:

• Lorena Gordillo Dagallier from Cambridge who successfully pitched her initiative “open-seneca”- a mobile air quality sensor network that will be installed throughout the city alongside educational workshops.
• Anai Green from Tel Aviv-Yafo who impressed the judging panel with her innovative fabric “Lumiweave” which offers a shade function at the same time as permitting light.
• Meiling Gao and Vivian Bi from California, who jointly won with their initiative “Clarity”, a smart, indoor-outdoor low cost air monitoring system that provides real-time air quality data.

These entrepreneurs will now see their innovations brought to life in one of this year's host cities: Los Angeles, Lisbon, Stockholm and Tel Aviv-Yafo, with  $50,000 in funding to be split amongst the winning projects and used to support their experimental phase in each city.