Zero Agro``Waste`` Competition

From Waste to Wealth
Zero Agro“Waste” Competition is the 1st world competition for entrepreneurs, startups, makers and students that have innovative ideas/businesses and applications in the field of Agricultural Waste Management.
Zero Agro“Waste” Competition aims to keep our environment clean and provide an interdisciplinary platform for leading entrepreneurs, researchers, artisans, investors and industry professionals to encourage innovative ideas that can make wealth from agricultural “wastes” as resources for the sustainable development.
Contestants will receive support and mentorship from international top experts in the field of Agricultural “Waste” Management, business development. Contestants will be able to exchange knowledge, technologies, innovations, trends, and opportunities with each other.
Finals will pitch their business in the ByPalma World Conference for a chance to win financial and in-kind prizes.
Zero Agro“Waste” Competition 2018 Theme: “Rediscovering Palm By-products!”

Why palm trees?
The Palm family includes a wide variety of species (e.g. date, coconut, oil, doum, sugar, etc.). They’re considered the main source of livelihood for significant sectors of the world population. The main product (cash crop) was the focus of growers, startups, and investors. Their by-products (secondary products) received little attention from the community.
Most palm species have similar by-products of annual pruning including; palm leaflets, midribs, fruit branches and coir, as well as the trunk at the end of palm life. These by-products may represent a sustainable material base for a wide spectrum of industries ranging from compost, medium density fiberboards (MDF), block boards, and pulp, up to fiber reinforcements for advanced composites. This opens a wide potential for the sustainable development of rural areas possessing palm plantation.

Objectives:

1. Support and develop startups, entrepreneurs, innovators working in the field of Palm byproducts through technical, business and financial support scheme.

2. To bring together ideas, researchers, investors, experts and entrepreneurs working in the area of industrial utilization of palm by-products and provide a platform for a live dialogue and exchange of experience between them.

3. Raise awareness about promising business opportunities in the field of Palm byproducts and foster innovation in that sector.

4. To spread the culture of “Not Wastes, but By-products” between the public to encourage them to benefit from the sustainable resources.

Competition Tracks:

→ Ideas Track: For nascent entrepreneurs who have a business idea in products out of Agriculture wastes – by-products of palm trees.

→ Startups Track: For entrepreneurs and startups who have an established businesses working on Agriculture wastes – by products of palm trees.

Phase 1: Registration (1^st August – 15^th September):

Teams and Startups from different regions can register their projects and ideas from 1st August to 15th September, any entries made before or after this time will not be counted.

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Please Note that each answer should be less than 300 characters!

Team/ Startup Name: *

Country

Team/ Startup representative: *

Email *

Phone

Address:

Team/ Startup Members: *

Describe your Team/ Startup in one Sentence:

What problem/ need are you trying to solve?

What is your solution?

Describe your product/ service in detail and how does it solve that problem?

Provide (a) link(s) for any documents or videos that can help us better understand your product/ service?

What is your competitive advantage?

Please tell us about your target customer segments and how big your market is?

How will you make money?

If there are social media channels or website for your team/ startup, please provide them?

How do you expect to benefit from participation in Zero Waste Competition?

What kind of support do you need? (tools, hardware, mentorship, consultation, fund, networking... etc.)?

Comment

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Phase 2: Mentorship Sessions (6^st October – 27^th October):

– First Webinar: Saturday 6 October.
– Second Webinar: Saturday 13 October.
– Third Webinar: Saturday 20 October.
– Fourth Webinar: Saturday 27 October.

Phase 3: Wealth Production (28^th October – 7^th November):

Teams and Startups should send the following to [email protected]

– Complete Business Plan (20 Pages Maximum): 5 Judges from scientists, experts and investors will judge the Complete Business Plan. (80 points)
– Marketing Materials: 5 Minutes Video and 200 Words Article about the product to spread the idea and make public engagement with their project. “(20 points)
– Teams can earn up to 5 Extra Points if they made a press release or any media outreach in public media like newspapers, TV, radio and news websites about their participation in Zero Agro“Waste” Competition.
Top 10 projects will be announced by 15th November to attend finals.

Phase 4: Finals (15^th December – 17^th December):

Top 10 projects will attend the finals at ByPalma (1st World Conference on By-Products of Palm Trees and Their Applications). It will take place in Aswan, Egypt.
Zero Agro“Waste” Competition and Bypalma Conference will afford conference tickets and all local cost including accommodation and transportation costs.
Travel costs will be based on funding availability.