STARTUPS INVOLVED IN THE PROJECT

A small family enterprise with high growth potential. Suncode produces and sells an innovative system to dry fruits and vegetables through solar energy. The technology has been already sold in Lebanon to farmers and cooperatives and the company has demonstrated to have traction. Interest in the Suncode has been expressed by farmers throughout Lebanon and some information request has arrived from other MENA countries. Suncode generates high added value in the agri-food value chain as it allows farmers to preserve their produce more cheaply and with more efficiency and sustainability. In the scale phase, as the company is going to market.

A group of highly motivated women has set up this company that collects organic waste from municipalities and transforms it in a locally produced fertilizer, upon enriching it with poultry manure. Hence Garbaliser provides organic fertilizers to farmers at a much cheaper price compared to the ones that are currently used and that are imported from abroad. In doing so Garbaliser provides a positive response for municipalities that need to cope with organic waste management. At the same time, they can provide a quality supplement to farmers, with affordable prices because the raw materials are found locally. In the scale phase as the company has validated concept and idea. It has generated some revenue and is going to market.

A company that is producing pet-food from the recuperation of chicken waste that usually slaughterhouses dump illegally in Lebanese rivers. Prochick has devised the formulae to transform such waste and recycle it as high-quality food for cats and dogs. Moreover, they have a social program for which they provide pet food to abandoned animals for each package sold. In the build phase as the company is refining its product, with signed letters of intent by vets and pet stores ready to place the product on their shelves.

A company that has devised a water-filter that can be attached to faucets, as well as to all sorts of bottles and containers, to purify -to a certain extent- waters for many households and food business purposes, ranging from restaurants and hotels, camping, refugee camps, city apartments and compounds. The device makes the water ready-to-cook but not to drink. The company has proved that there is a market and that there is profitability in the business, however they are in need of refining the prototype at the time being. In the build phase as the company is redesigning and working on the prototype.

A team of water engineers that are set to build a fish-farm in Lebanon using clean energy. The idea may have a great impact in Lebanon, where most of the fish consumed is imported at high prices. The business has been studied thoroughly and they are in need of seed finance to launch it at a smaller scale with the ambition to grow rapidly. In the ideation phase as the company needs to get validation and define go-to-market.

A technology that helps purify water using natural filtration systems. The technology is not ready yet, as it comes from a research undertaken by the involved water engineers. The technology works on paper, but it needs to be prototype and tested. The team needs to still prove that there is a market for the technology (target users being municipalities and residential compounds). Initial interviews with municipalities are not promising and they face a crisis due to the devaluation of the Lebanese lira. In the ideation phase as the technology is not ready and validation needs to be discovered.

An early-stage company that has devised a technology to increase the efficiency of truck operators in recovering and disposing of septic sludge. They provide added value to truck operators as they have demonstrated that the use of their technology will increase their profits and makes them more competitive when applying for tenders from the international organizations that manage refugee camps. Moreover, they can assure treatment of more cubic meters of sludge and therefore have an impact on the environment. The team is now getting validation of their technology and of the market through interviews with truck operators and has progressed to validate their value proposition. In the ideation stage as the company is now validating the business and finalizing the technical details.

A company that installs devices on farms linked to a mobile app to help the farmers to irrigate and fertigate more efficiently. The company has run a few projects and is in the phase of increasing its business through the implementation of a good sales approach. In the scale phase as the product is ready and has been installed. The company needs to start selling.

The company produces and sells a technology that when installed in the water distribution systems, provides the water distributor to distribute water in the right quantity, quality and pressure. The company has spurred the interest of various municipalities through interviews conducts during the coaching sessions and has shown that there is a clear interest in the technology. In the build phase as the company needs to define go-to-market and look into getting pre-sales. 

The Lebanese Center for Water and Environment is a consulting group composed of bright young engineers that has devised a methodology to support decision makers in the localization of local interventions through the collection and analysis of data. The group has run a few projects and have demonstrated that the methodology works. The group is looking forward to build a sales strategy to acquire projects from local administrations. In the build phase as the methodology works but sales and access to market needs refinement. 

Flowless provides a platform to monitor water transmission across municipal water systems. The company installs sensors and connects them wirelessly to a cloud platform that allows water managers to track quality and to identify leaks in real-time. Flowless is trading with several projects already deployed in the West Bank and Gaza. They are in revenue and are looking to expand. Flowless has real SDG potential, as the platform helps municipal water managers identify water waste, which is of major importance in water stressed countries like Jordan (where Flowless also has projects.)

Blue Filter builds water filtration systems designed to remove nitrates and other pollutants from water used in agriculture and irrigation systems. Blue Filter uses natural media to absorb toxins, which itself can be converted into fertiliser and animal feed. Blue Filter is not quite in Beta; the platform itself is still being developed that racks water quality. In the comng months they shall work to refine their market validation. Blue Filter is about water quality and sustainability so in that respect, they have social impact. Their products only use natural media to filter water.

Holy Land Tulips intends to grow tulips in a controlled environment (grow rooms) and sell them throughout the West Bank. Holy Land Tulips is rather in ideation stage: the young leader has done sound research and has good references and examples of successful similar businesses abroad. The company needs support along the whole journey from idea to trading. The start-up has a clear policy in favor of women: it is women-owned, and intends to give employment to more women.

Ezra makes hydroponic grow systems for homes. The systems include a prototype rooftop system, and smaller systems for balconies and windows. Ezra has a prototype developed for rooftops; they lack in market validation. In terms of social importance, the challenge ahead is to upscale the solution, growing from the size of a hobbyist tool, so to gain a real role as integration in urban food system. 

Palstevia grows stevia and packages it for consumer use. It has two products: raw stevia and stevia put in bags (like tea) for consumes to use as a natural, alternative sweetener. Palstevia has products to market. They do have social impact. First it is a woman-owned and woman managed business. The stevia they grow is in greenhouses with a focus on sustainable agriculture and the product itself is designed to reduce the amount of sugar consumed in the territories.

Agriotec provides an IoT management solution for greenhouses. The company has built a platform to provide real-time growing condition information for greenhouse managers, based on wi-fi- sensors placed to monitor the greenhouse. The company addresses SDGs related to sustainable food systems and communities, as greenhouse farming is common in the Middle East. Agriotec is still developing a prototype. The team is based in Gaza and Toronto, which lets envision an international market potential. Getting the prototype up and running is the first order of business.

Walter intends to convert shower water into clean, gray water to use in toilets. The Walter device collects shower water into a basin, where it is filtered and treated with a sanitizer, turning the water blue. The water is then pumped into the toilet cistern. Walter aims to reduce residential water consumption by a substantial margin, by recirculating shower water. Even if it hasn’t yet grown enough to go to market, the company has won several awards and has been recognised as innovative

Myriam connects in-home makers of traditional Palestinian foods (usually, shelf stable products like honey and some dry goods) to the consumers via marketplaces and an online store. The company has a range of products all branded as Myriam. Myriam’s founders and almost all its makers are women. The company intends to continue to pursue the SDG gender equity goal by opening up their own commercial kitchen and inviting women to become makers for the brand. Myriam is trading already and are in revenue. The revenues are impressive however they are mindful that their margins are on the low side as one would expect with the types of products they sell.

Dr. Sbihat is a fairly well-known professor in the West Bank. This is his family’s company. They aim to lease unexploited olive-tree cultivation in the West Bank, to take care of the trees and harvest them and sell the fruits -upon processing- as either olive oil or table olives. The company is actively selling their products, with a profitable export activity in the AUE already established. They are also dedicated to preserving olive growing in the West Bank which is important to the Palestinian identity and cultural heritage. The business model described above is a new way for them to expand production. 

Agrilive is an irrigation management device for farmers. The device monitors water distribution and allows farmers to add nutrients to the water (fertirrigation). Agrilive has prototyped a smaller unit for small farms; a larger model can support the irrigation of 100 dunams (approximately 10 Ha). The company does support SDGs related to sustainable communities and clean water as part of the benefit of the product is to reduce water consumption on farms. They are presently seeking for support to balance tech capacity with commercial expertise, starting by analysis of competitors and market validation. 

Impact on waste and health.  Solve a nutritional and environmental problem by valorising tuna waste (15k tons/year). Based on 6 patents, Oleomar buys raw material (Tuna waste) and supplies active Omega products to companies that use Omega 3 in the production line (pharmaceutical companies, food, agriculture and cosmetics). From a study, the composition of their product is 30% more efficient than existing alternatives for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. In the build stage as patents are already filled, they have letters of intent but need a big amount of capital to start the project.    

Impact on natural resources management and farming. Costs to deal with field’s irrigation are high and a lot of water & energy are wasted in the process. Through AI and IOT, they offer a smart irrigation system and remote control of the field’s irrigation. They deal with installation, maintenance and support, their solution is cheap and reliable, and the team has field experience. Their targets are farmers or investors in agriculture. In the scaling stage as they already sold products directly and through a reseller (15 units sold total).

Impact on waste and health. Raw materials for food supplements are mostly imported in Tunisia while factories processing sea products create a lot of waste. Hwita (meaning small fish) buys and recycles waste from seafood processing plants and turns it into fish oil and raw material for cosmetic products. They target para pharmaceutical and cosmetics companies. In the build stage as they are finetuning the development process of their solution, they already are well connected with the industry and have a good GTM plan.

This startup aims to Impact on natural resources management and farming. 80% of water resources are lost due to poor water management and use planning, resulting in a growing trend of agricultural land abandonment due to water scarcity. They built an agro-meteorology digital platform to collect and process information on climate and agriculture, and produce advice for farmers, on how to best use resources to optimize the production. In the build stage as they still need to have their prototype ready, they seek for support to do more presales studies and refine the target.

Impact on health. There is an increase in virus contamination rate and more pollution, people are looking for more sustainable products. Through valorization of medicinal plant extracts, they produce essential oils, hand sanitizer and cosmetic products for the wellness industry (B2B & B2C). In the scaling stage as they already sold products directly to consumers and through beauty salons.

Impact on waste. Fish products are wasted during transport due to frequent failures across the cold chain. They developed a software & hardware solution for the food retailers and transporters. The idea consists of a fleet-tracking system, with temperature monitoring and geolocalisation. In the ideation stage, the tech side is advanced, and the startup is presently seeking for support to build and test the system.

This startup aims at having impact on environment and health. Cow milk production is demanding in terms of resources and water consumption, and considering that 20% of the Tunisian population has digestive issues, diabetes and colon related disease, an alternative to cow milk meets an interesting potential demand. The startup produces a plant-based milk from the TigerNat plant. They and are exploring the idea to sell the roots of the plants too.  In the ideation stage: they need to refine the problem-solution fit, to define the value proposition and to design distribution channels properly.

The startup aims at improving the use efficiency of resources in agriculture, impacting on health and natural resources management. A lot of water and fertilizer are wasted, which causes environmental problems because of a poor control. They collect data through sensors, as basis of a remote control of the irrigation systems, as well as an intelligent / autonomous irrigation system, to help farmers improving their cost-efficiency by making the right decision. They In the build stage as they already have an MVP and their final product will be ready in autumn 2021. They already did presales and have identified clear targets for the scaling of the operations. 

Impact on natural resources management and farming industry. Inland fish farms are rare because of a lack of water and the resources to produce fish are not well managed.  They sell Tilapia fishes to catering companies and deal with the whole production process, they have the firm inland farm of Tilapia and had the first authorisation released in Tunisia to build a dam. They are aiming at a full circular fish farm and in the future want to sell their know-how to farmers, offering to grow tilapia on top of the existing activities. In the scaling stage as they are already producing and selling their fishes but also the fish food to other farmers.

Impact on waste & environment. Algae are polluting the lakes in Tunisia and cause the production of a lot of waste. However that waste can be used as raw material. Through a 5 steps process, they produced and tested with 100 customers a cat litter made out of algae. The product is more sustainable and efficient than the current alternatives. In the future they will also create cosmetics based on algae and create a cleaner and waste free environment around Tunisian lakes. In the scaling stage as they already pre-sold products directly, have identified distributors and have suppliers for their raw material.