Bertrand Piccard is an explorer. He was the first to fly around the world with a balloon, and later, with a solar-powered aircraft. His Solar Impulse Foundation continues to explore the limits of what is possible; but the focus has shifted from flying around the globe to scouring it for solutions that contribute to a cleaner, more efficient world.

“When I was flying day and night above the oceans in a solar-powered plane that was making no noise and no pollution, I first thought to myself, “wow, I’m already in the future”. Until I realized that it was only the present made possible by contemporary engineering. This meant, in turn, that the rest of the world was still living in the past, with outdated technologies that waste energy, are too expensive and harm our environment. It was then that I decided that my next undertaking was to make sure that the technologies that allow us to do so much better in all parts of our society and economy will be implemented across the board and as fast as possible. With the Solar Impulse Efficient Solution Label and its network, we are boosting clean technology solutions that are good for the environment and economic growth”, says Bertrand Piccard.

Even for optimists, it might come as a surprise that a lot of solutions to the world’s problems are already available. They are, however, often not widely known and used because they have been developed by small tech-based startups, which lack global visibility. This is where Solar Impulse foundation steps in. It promotes the solutions that it has identified and assessed in a thorough process by granting these companies the “Solar Impulse Efficient Solution” label.

The foundation found a lot of solutions that qualify. In fact, it announced in April 2021 that it had reached its initial target of 1000 solutions that contribute to one of five (out of 17 in total) United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

Verve Ventures’ team is proud that 3 of our portfolio companies have already received the label from Solar Impulse foundation, namely CleanGreens, Insolight and 9T Labs. A brief description of the startups together with the reasons that convinced Solar Impulse can be found below.

Verve Ventures enables private investors to invest in startups that contribute to solving some of mankind’s most pressing challenges. When Verve’s investment team assesses the merits and opportunities of a new startup, they will always assess if a startup really tackles a problem worth solving.

“When we founded Verve Ventures 12 years ago, we were convinced that technological innovation is one of the biggest contributors to solving many of humanity’s biggest challenges. We have focused on investments in game-changing technologies vs incremental innovation. And we are convinced that within this realm, the biggest and most sustainable investment returns can be achieved. In 2016, based on our track record, we were chosen by the ecological and ethical pension Fund Nest Sammelstiftung, to be their trusted partner for investments into venture capital in accordance with their sustainability approach”, says Verve Ventures co-founder Steffen Wagner.

Verve Ventures’ portfolio companies and the Sustainable Development Goals they’re addressing. (Source: own assessment)

The work isn’t done yet

But what comes after having identified 1000 efficient solutions? Solar Impulse’s work isn’t done yet. Bertrand Piccard wants more people to invest in sustainable and profitable solutions: “We’ve proven that over 1000 profitable solutions exist to protect the environment in a profitable way, but the companies providing these technologies need professional investment to grow. To help them, we demonstrate that investing in new and clean technologies makes both economic and ecological sense, fostering qualitative growth rather than just the quantitative growth we see today.”

Verve Ventures has been built on the premise that investments in startups that bring efficient technologies to the market should be available to a wide audience, not just a few business angels. With our deal-by-deal model, we enable individuals to express their opinion on which problems and solutions they deem most relevant. In a way, Verve Ventures shares the ambition of the Solar Impulse Foundation to promote and support investment into companies that can achieve both profits and a positive impact.

CleanGreens is an award-winning Swiss agro-tech company that provides innovative farming solutions and sells mobile aeroponics automated systems to produce clean, fresh and pesticide-free leaf vegetables with 97% water efficiency. The systems are developed for growers with the intent to localize production all year long, thus reducing off-season imports and related carbon emissions. An additional effect of localization is to secure permanent jobs. The technology multiplies the lettuce yield by 30 (on an equal surface) while reducing the water consumption by a factor of 25 compared to traditional agriculture. Products grown with CleanGreens’ system are of premium quality in all aspects: full size, great taste, longer shelf-life, and without contaminants.

SDG 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation
SDG 9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
SDG 11 – Sustainable cities and communities
SDG 12 – Responsible production and consumption

“The solution is a real application in closing the circular economy loop, as it gets fresher and better produce near consumers, while also reducing carbon emissions, recovering energy for heating, and minimizing water demand, with no chemical residues. The final product is of higher quality, with a substantially lower environmental, energy and climate footprint, paving the way of the future of food systems”, says Enrique Rebolledo, Climate Finance Specialist and Solar Impulse Efficient Solution Expert.

Insolight is a Swiss startup that develops innovative high-efficiency translucent solar modules, validated at a record 29% efficiency under direct sunlight. As such, it produces more electricity than conventional PV panels and provides a higher return on investment. One of the key applications is in agrivoltaic installations such as greenhouses or directly over crops, where the combination of photovoltaics and agricultural production allows for optimization of land use, revenue increase and reduction of operating expenses. The active control of transmitted light ensures that plants get all the light required for their photosynthesis, and only the excess light is transformed into electricity.

SDG 7 – Affordable and clean energy
SDG 9 – Industry, innovation and infrastructure
SDG 12 – Responsible consumption and production

“There is increasing competition for land between food production and solar power, creating a strong push to the fast-growing agrivoltaic market that is already a multi-billion industry. Insolight is building new solar modules providing adjustable crops protection on top of electricity generation. The solar installation replaces agricultural shading systems in plastic tunnels or greenhouses, opening large installation deployments that don’t affect land use. It also creates multi-channel revenues for the developer, as the solar installation is also an agronomic tool, allowing attractive returns for the installation”, says Antonio Delfino, Corporate Director of Venturi Lab and Solar Impulse Efficient Solution Expert.

9T Labs has developed the Red Series 3D printing technology. It radically changes the way high-performance composite parts are made at high production volumes. The 3D printing and software solution reduces material usage and cost and is available as an annual subscription. It thus reduces the barriers for companies from industries such as mobility, medical and leisure to reap the benefits of high-performance thermoplastic composites.

SDG 9 – Industry, innovation and infrastructure
SDG 12 – Responsible production and consumption

“The inventors have developed a very niche sustainable technology that delivers in two main ways: (1) Lighter composite parts save energy and thus critical natural resources, reducing the carbon footprint of manufacturing processes. (2) Energy-saving also directly translates to cost savings which can be passed onto the ultimate customer and increase profitability. The invention has, thus, all the right ingredients for a clean and efficient solution”, says Sudhir Pai, Head of Robotics, Automation and Sustainable at Axiom Space and Solar Impulse Efficient Solution Expert.