Well it’s been a huge year in climate tech, and for Climate Salad too.
Some quick stats:
In just over 2 years we have built a community of 510 Australian climate tech companies, 800 members and 9,000 followers.
This year we worked with 25 companies on global growth and took 50 companies on international trade missions.
We also grew our team from 4 to 7.
Quick recap on the year.
January
No rest for climate tech warriors. After a 15 minute break from midnight on New Years, we were back at it to plan out a bigger year! Stefan Knight joined the team and jumped straight in with founder and mentor meetings.
February
We were down in Adelaide for our first South Australia climate tech showcase, then back in Adelaide for EvokeAg, then in Adelaide yet again for South Start. Yes, Adelaide is thriving!
We also launched the second edition of the Australian Climate Tech Founders survey, to capture key data on the growth of the ecosystem.
March
We launched the promotion of our first major new initiative - the Global Growth Program - focused on helping Australian climate tech companies expand internationally. This is wonderfully supported by both LaunchVic and NSW Dept of Environment and Climate Change. We had an incredible array of fantastic applicants.
https://www.climatesalad.com/global-growth-program-applications-open
April
We held a GGP launch event in Sydney with founders, investors, mentors and partners. The strength and ambition of this industry was plain to see.
Our team grew some more technical depth with Michael Dijkstra joining us to build out our technology platform. Michael has played a key role in building out our jobs board, member system, mentoring system and also our data platform (launching in 2024)
May
We launched a partnership with Boundless to help more people find work in climate. We started by launching our Introduction To Climate Technology program with content, workshops, games and talks. In our first month we shared it with over 1,000 professionals across water, research, management consulting and more. We saw a massive growth in those who understand that climate change is a clear problem and the need to build solutions. (And also the first fun of the Sun, Wind Wave game - all the cool kids are doing it!)
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mliubinskas_theoutside-activity-7064015378242277376-Ef7A
June
Christian Pazzaglia joined the team as Event Manager. He hit the ground running to support the team to prepare for the Australian Climate Industry Report launch in Sydney. This event brought together over 150 people to celebrate the growing climate tech industry - and a love for data that shows this.
https://www.climatesalad.com/climate-tech-industry-report
We also supported a Green Buildings trade mission to Singapore with Investment NSW which saw a great cohort of companies explore growth in South East Asia.
July
Alison Bird joined the team as Program Manager just in time for us to celebrate Climate Salad’s second birthday! We also held an online Yarning Circle which explored some of the key themes in the lead up to the Voice referendum and the opportunities for climate tech companies to be led by Indigenous wisdom.
August
We launched the Australian Climate Tech Industry Report in Melbourne at the Build for Impact event and launch of the Melbourne Climate Network. With support from Melbourne’s Lord Mayor, Sally Capp AO, and over 200 other climate tech enthusiasts, the Melbourne Town Hall was positively buzzing!
We also launched the first cohort of the Global Growth Program, with 25 high-potential companies from across Australia selected.
September
We took 16 Australian climate tech companies to the world through two international trade missions - to New York Climate Week and London Climate Tech Show.
https://www.climatesalad.com/international-trade-missions
October
We were busy at home and abroad as we took 15 companies on an international trade mission to VERGE23 in San Jose.
Meanwhile, over 50 people joined us at the Greater Whitsunday Regional Activation event in Mackay, including Queensland Chief Entrepreneur, Julia Spicer OAM and a range of local business and industry leaders. We also launched the inaugural Queensland Women in Climate Tech Fellowship with 9 women founders joining this 8 week program.
We also had our team in Melbourne for All Energy and Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) events which were huge and packed with climate inspiration.
November
The Queensland Climate Tech Showcase in Brisbane brought together the state’s expanding climate tech industry. Over 100 founders, investors, mentors, government representatives, corporates and ecosystem supporters gathered at the Queensland State Library for workshops and panel discussions as well as over 50 Queensland-based companies pitching or exhibiting.
And we wrapped up with the Australian Climate Tech Festival & Awards at Sydney Town Hall. With over 700 tickets sold, international investor Sophie Purdom , local comedian and War on Waste host Craig Reucassel workshops, panels, over 70 companies pitching and 38 exhibiting - this was a huge day! Thank you for making this a wonderful day and congratulations again to the 2023 Climate Tech Award winners!
https://www.climatesalad.com/australian-climate-tech-festival
December
We hit 40 investors in our Aussie Angels investment syndicate which we plan to keep growing next year. This was following our first investment.
https://app.aussieangels.com/syndicate/climate-salad-capital
We have spent most of December wrapping up all the amazing work, spending time with our members, partners and team to learn as much as we can from all that we have and start preparing for an even bigger year to come.
2024. Bring it on.
P.S. None of this happens without a massive amount of effort and support.
Climate Salad would not exist without the foundation that every single climate tech company, founder and team member provides. You are building the solutions we need. Please keep going.
We can only keep helping with the love, support and commitment of some really brave groups who have backed our vision and mission. We give a massive thank you for your show of faith. We promise we are working very hard. LaunchVic NSW Department of Planning and Environment Investment NSW Queensland Chief Entrepreneur Advance Queensland Queensland Government Trade and Investment Queensland Boundless KPMG High Growth Ventures AWS Startups Pollination Wollemi Capital Ashurst W23 Main Sequence Alberts Giant Leap Ecotone Ventures Clean Energy Finance Corporation Qantas Climate Fund x15ventures
Most of all we need to thank this amazing team. This year we had Charlotte Connell leave to bring her force of nature to so many more amazing climate projects (We miss you!) And we see Stefan Knight jumping into a fantastic new program in 2024 - thanks for your huge impact on GGP, mentors and investors Stefan.
We have 2 wonderful members of our advisory board - Robin Goldberg (Climate Salad, Advisor) and Katherine Woodthorpe - thanks for your strength, patience and guidance.
We were wonderfully joined by Alison Bird who has taken the reins of a huge load of partner work and is doing amazingly. As well as Christian Pazzaglia who architected the incredible 2023 Climate Tech Festival and has his hands full with so many big events in 2024. Plus Michael Dijkstra has brought a much needed software, data and product skillset which has turned our basic systems into a working machine.
In Melbourne we had the honour of working with two wonderful entrepreneurs-in-residence. Huge thanks to both Megan Woff and Tina Li GAICD for your effort and support for our globally ambitous Victorian companies.
In her first full year, Audrey Jean-baptiste has really shown her brilliance. She brings an amazing combination of strategy, hustle, vision and empathy and is truly the operational engine of Climate Salad.
Continuing on her wonderful work, and clocking up 2 years working with us, Olivia Utharntharm took everything up a level. A beta program became the full Global Growth Program. One trade mission became three. The beta industry report became a globally respected asset.
Behind the scenes, keeping it all going and making sure that we operate with good governance and management is the backbone of the entire business - Jacki Bond. You may have met her as chief bouncer at the festival, but we know that she is constantly working hard to keep this wildly ambitious, super fast growing machine of Climate Salad pointed in the right direction and making it's impact. We couldn't do it without you Jacki.
Thank you for everyones support and we hope to keep going and growing in 2024.
Have a good break, get some sun on your panels to recharge your batteries, and we'll see you at 12.15am 1/1/2024.
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