Enter €1M Green Challenge

Europe’s €1 million Postcode Lotteries Green Challenge 2020 is open to early stage companies until 1 April. Five of the continent’s most impactful startups developing innovations designed to deliver a more sustainable world will be selected for the final in Amsterdam.

“This year we hope to be inundated once again with concrete plans from entrepreneurs to tackle the challenges facing our world,” said Margriet Schreuders, Head of Charity at the Dutch Postcode Lottery. “In the field of green energy, for instance, or strengthening biodiversity, restoring ecosystems, sustainable food and alternatives to plastic. It is inspiring to see entrepreneurs thinking in terms of solutions instead of problems, working on the solutions that our planet needs most today.”

In 2019 the €500k overall winner was Swedish Algae Factory, an early stage company selling ‘high-tech silica shells’ as a sustainable alternative material to harmful chemicals used in solar cells and personal care products. Now startups from Norway, the Netherlands, Britain, Germany and Sweden, are being invited to submit ideas for a chance to follow in its footsteps. All five finalists will walk away with a share of the €1 million pot with the winner bagging €500,000. Apply by 1 April 2020 12:00 CEST (noon). The winning startups will go forward to the final in Amsterdam on 30 September. 

Who can apply? Startups with solutions that are:

• contributing to a sustainable planet
• developed enough to execute
• realisable as a usable product or service within the next two years
• located in one of the countries in which there is a Postcode Lottery: Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Norway or Sweden

Postcode Lotteries Green Challenge