Reaching sustainability goals is now firmly on the agenda across sectors. From governments to big businesses and from startups to wider society, moving towards greener living and embedding sustainability into strategies is a top priority. Across the world, countries are striving to reach climate goals aimed at protecting the planet for the future.
Green startups and scaleups are playing a crucial role in helping countries reach their ambitious sustainability goals. From mobility to green procurement, climate startups are already building solutions that transform governments and economies. However, they are still more often part of a VC’s agenda rather than regular visitors to governmental corridors.
According to an analysis by Atomico and Dealroom, climate action has been by far the most popular focus across the purpose-driven investments in startups. Although access to public sector clients and testing opportunities is a clear next step for scaling, startups struggle to work with the public sector, especially in Europe, according to the World Economic Forum.
There is one programme trying to change that – The Global Scale-up Programme
Global Scale-up Programme (GSUP) is an access programme bringing together around 10 participating governments and up to 20 innovative companies from around the world to address pertinent climate challenges. It was initiated by Lithuania’s GovTech Lab together with Scotland and other countries from the CivTech Alliance.
After the great success of the first iteration, it’s now being launched for the second time.
The GSUP is aimed at fast-growth scaleups with more mature products which can be scaled at pace given the right access to key government stakeholders. The programme enables access to governments, the public sector, procuring agencies and innovation ecosystems in multiple locations.
For the companies that join and collaborate, it’s an incredible chance to be in front of some of the leading innovation teams from governments around the world. It provides access to ecosystems companies would not otherwise have access to. Last year the programme resulted in major victories for participating companies – including accelerated investment due to exposure on GSUP and COP26, multi-million dollar deals with one of the Brazilian states and a $15m Series A funding or contract won with a Lithuanian municipality.
This year’s programme
This year, the programme is looking for scaleups that can solve one of the two climate-focused challenges. The solutions should either answer the question of how communities can use data and technology to make ‘nature-smart’ choices and drive scalable green growth, or help figure out how data and technology can help the public sector procure greener services and reduce the environmental impact of the supply chain.
The open call lasts until the 6th of June. More information can be found here.
GovTech Lab Lithuania is a project funded by the European Regional Development Fund. Number and name of operational programme measure: 01.2.1-LVPA-V-842 Inogeb LT.
