Brian Blum
March 15, 2023

It’s an international “concert tour” even an environmentalist like Greta Thunberg could get behind.

JVP, Margalit Startup City, Mini and URBAN-X launched their “2023 World Climate Tech Tour” in New York City last week, aiming to identify and showcase promising startups and relevant technologies that can help to combat climate change.

The tour will visit five cities – in addition to New York, Jerusalem, Paris, Munich, Stockholm and Bahrain are coming up – before concluding at the COP28 climate change conference in the United Arab Emirates in December.

The New York launch event was attended by Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and international figures including Ambassador Shaikha Aysha Ahmed Saqer Alkhalifa from Bahrain, Deputy Consul General Wolfram von Heynitz from Germany, Martin Kaspar representing the European Union, and Swedish head of sustainability and strategic communications Sofia Hedstrom de Leo.

World Climate Tech Tour kicks off in NYC
From left, Erel Margalit, founder and chairman of JVP and Margalit Startup City; Ambassador Shaikha Aysha Ahmed Saqer Alkhalifam, Bahrain; Mark Levine, Manhattan Borough President. Photo by Shahar Azran

The World Climate Tech Tour comes on the heels of September 2022’s launch of the Margalit Startup City-International Climate Tech Center in Manhattan’s trendy Soho neighborhood.

The tour’s emphasis is on multidisciplinary solutions to the biggest challenges facing the planet today.

“We need to join forces from core industries – fintech, cyber, ag-tech, food-tech and artificial intelligence – to create a new ‘firewall’ that will protect our cities,” said Erel Margalit, founder and chairman of JVP and his eponymous Margalit Startup City.

World Climate Tech Tour kicks off in NYC
Erel Margalit speaking at the launch of the 2023 World Climate Tech Tour in New York City. Photo by Shahar Azran

“We cannot continue to address climate change in isolation or from a single perspective. The complex nature of the issue requires a multidisciplinary approach, where experts from different industries come together to create innovative solutions.”

The International Climate accelerator has attracted so far around 400 applicants, from pre-seed to Series A, from 40 countries around the globe.

Among the startups that were part of the launch event in New York were several Israel-based companies:

  • Urban Dashboard has built a SaaS to help real estate professionals streamline the planning process of their next projects, saving time, money and wasted resources, all factors that can impact the environment.
  • Factoree.ai is already helping tens of thousands of factories better manage their emission-reduction processes by guiding site managers toward greener production, including using materials more efficiently, minimizing energy and waste, replacing raw materials and energy sources.
  • Dryad provides early forest fire detection as well as health and growth monitoring solutions for public and private forests.

Several companies based in New York also participated in the launch:

  • Novele designs, manufactures, and sells energy storage solutions for dense urban environments. Their first product, Energy Board, is an ultra-thin space-saving energy storage solution.
  • FunForm’s climate change mission is to reduce “energy poverty” and improve climate resilience by simplifying building envelope retrofits.
  • It’s Electric builds and deploys curbside charging solutions for electric vehicles. By connecting charging infrastructure and building owners, the company hopes to avoid some of the key hurdles around installing charging stations in cities.

“The key to success is the connection between policy and tech, and together we can join forces to make a meaningful impact on our planet.” Margalit said.

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