FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
On April 19, 2022, Orange Silicon Valley hosted a pitch meeting for its Decarbonization Challenge. The Challenge builds on Orange’s commitment to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions on three scopes to reach its goal of Net Zero Carbon by 2040. Via this project, Orange Silicon Valley intends to accelerate the matchmaking process between startups, the Orange Group, and the broader ecosystem of corporations and investors.
The winners were determined based on their technologies and readiness for commercial engagement. Startups were also evaluated based on their decarbonization potential, as quantified by a tool developed by Clean Energy Ventures.
The Challenge pitch meeting evaluated 15 startups and determined five winners:
Agtools: Agtools is a worldwide SaaS platform that gathers real-time government and institutional data for over 500 specialty crops and commodities. A platform for agribusiness operators, Agtools helps operators make faster, more informed decisions that help them increase profits and reduce food waste in their supply chain.
Carbon Reform: The creator of the Carbon Capsule, Carbon Reform provides air capture technology that filters carbon from the air and allows buildings to reduce energy use by up to 40%.
Daanaa: Daanaa focuses on improving power transmissions. Their semiconductor technology can power and transmit energy without requiring wires. With Daanaa’s technology, power and data can travel together medium and modality free.
Syzygy Plasmonics: Syzygy is developing a chemical reactor powered by light instead of combustion. Due to its components, the reactor can reduce both cost and carbon emissions for the products it powers.
Verdigris: Verdigris is an AI IoT platform that makes buildings smarter and more connected while reducing energy consumption and costs. By combining proprietary hardware sensors, machine learning, and software, Verdigris “learns” the energy patterns of a building. Their AI software produces comprehensive reports including energy forecasts, alerts about faulty equipment, maintenance reminders, and detailed energy usage information for each device and appliance.
The five selected startups will participate in an expense-paid trip to Paris in May. They will attend business development meetings and present their solutions to Orange, its business units, external partners, and customers. The five startups will also have the opportunity to attend the ChangeNOW sustainability-focused conference where Orange is an Official Partner.
The Decarbonization Challenge was honored to have Elizabeth Tchoungui, Orange’s Executive Director of CSR, Diversity, and Philanthropy, serve as President of the Jury. The jury also included Jérôme Goulard, Chief of Sustainability and Ethics Officer at Orange Business Services; Shanbor Gupta, Investment Manager at Clean Energy Ventures; Osama Idrees, Investment Director at EDF Pulse Ventures; Reynaldo Gomez, Energy Partner and Business Manager at NVIDIA; and Gabriel Sidhom, CEO at Orange Silicon Valley.
Following the event, president of the jury Elizabeth Tchoungui stated: “At Orange, we are convinced that digital technology is a powerful lever for decarbonization. With this challenge, we are pleased to contribute to new solutions that fight global warming via IT and digital innovations.”
The event has received critical support from corporate partners Delfingeni and NVIDIA,ii investor partners EDF,iii Clean Energy Venturesiv , and collaborating partners Business France,v and BNP Paribasvi
For questions, please contact:
Jaline Davidson, Orange Silicon Valley: jaline.davidson@orange.com
About Orange Silicon Valley
Orange Silicon Valley is a subsidiary of Orange. For more than 20 years, Orange Silicon Valley has been providing strategic insights, connecting ecosystems, and creating unique value by making US innovation and technology visible, accessible and actionable for Orange and Orange’s customers. Orange Silicon Valley is headquartered in San Francisco with a regional office in New York.
About Orange
Orange is one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators with sales of 42.5 billion euros in 2021 and 140,000 employees worldwide at 31 December 2021, including 78,000 employees in France. The Group has a total customer base of 271 million customers worldwide at 31 December 2021, including 224 million mobile customers and 23 million fixed broadband customers. The Group is present in 26 countries. Orange is also a leading provider of global IT and telecommunication services to multinational companies under the brand Orange Business Services. In December 2019, the Group presented its new "Engage 2025" strategic plan, which, guided by social and environmental accountability, aims to reinvent its operator model. While accelerating in growth areas and placing data and AI at the heart of its innovation model, the Group will be an attractive and responsible employer, adapted to emerging professions.
Orange is listed on Euronext Paris (symbol ORA) and on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol ORAN).
For more information on the internet and on your mobile: www.orange.com, www.orange-business.co or to follow us on Twitter: @orangegrouppr.
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i DELFINGEN, a global automotive supplier and a leading manufacturer of onboard networks protection solutions and fluid transfer tubing.
ii NVIDIA, inventor of the GPU and a pioneer in accelerated computing and AI.
iii EDF's goal is to maintain its position as the global, efficient, responsible electricity company that
champions low-carbon growth.
iv Clean Energy Ventures invests in scalable early-stage climate tech startups and clean energy technologies addressing global climate change.
v Business France is responsible for fostering export growth by French businesses, facilitating international investment in France.
vi BNP Paribas S.A. is a French international banking group, born in 2000 from the merger between Banque Nationale de Paris and Paribas
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