What an epic adventure! The Shape the Future of Climate Challenge is over! A whole month of craziness has passed and 105 incredible projects have been developed as a result.
So many mentors have been blown away by the innovative solutions of you, pirates. No matter if you made it to the finals or not, know that you’ve made a huge difference already and contributed positively to the world: Together, we have moved one step closer to solving one of the most pressing issue of our time: climate change.
We are super inspired by all participants, and we would have loved to take everyone to Silicon Valley, but let’s take a closer look on who won the challenge…
And the winners are …
A huge round of applause for team Aeifloria! The four young changemakers from Austria – Elanu Karakus, Annie Zountsa, Mariam Elshahawy, Kateryna Chechotka, did an amazing job developing and pitching their idea.
With their synthetic flower, they are attracting bees to flowers and other plants, ensuring that pollination is increasing again, saving our food supply and bee populations.
The Problem
Climate stress damages the composition of floral resources such as nectar and pollen in surviving plants, with a decrease in nectar volume by 60% and pollen weight by 50%. It also reduces bee-attracting scents, leading to a nutritional decline which results in colony collapses. Pollinators contribute $577 billion yearly to global agriculture as well as to 35% of global food production, yet 1 in 6 bee species are regionally extinct and 40% of the remaining species are vulnerable to extinction.
A Smart Flower for Bee Pollination Increase
Aeifloria developed a small unit that looks like a flower with its microcontroller and data transmitter being located in a box, buried underground. The flower stem houses artificial fragrance aimed to help attract bees and an ultrasonic distance sensor in the middle of its pistol responsible to collect data on the frequency and duration of bee visits. Compared to other available solutions, Aeiflora does not require manual spraying and helps farmers make decisions about pollination management and crop yield optimization with the data it collects. We aim to start our pilot implementation with cotton production where pollinator visitation increases crop yield by up to 62%, incentivizing farmers to use the product.
Interested to learn more? Watch their pitch video here:
These four changemakers will join the Moonshot Pirates team on an unforgettable trip to Silicon Valley this autumn where they will visit companies such as Meta, Pinterest, Google, and Apple, and the campuses of Standford University and more.
New this time: the Community MVP
Helping one another is a key trait of being an entrepreneur. You can’t solve the world’s biggest problems, like climate change, all on your own. You need a supportive community, and you need to engage, collaborate, and help others so we can all reach our full potential.
That’s why this year we had community quests, were pirates engaged in helping the community. In the end, a community voting chose the winner, the community MVP – most valuable pirate 😉 – Conqueror Kuseju. He will join us on our Silicon Valley trip, proving that winning is not everything, but having a supporting community around you!
At this point, we want to thank our partners MEGA Bildungsstiftung, Conference on Wheels, Tata&Friends, and Austrian Startups. Thank you for your support!
The Journey Ahead
Every setback is a chance to grow and to catapult oneself into the future.
How to do that? Although the challenge is over and only one team won, the real challenge has only just begun: The ideas that you have developed and the projects you have worked on have the potential to change the world.
That’s why we are so excited to tell you about our brand-new program:
the Launchpad.
What’s the Launchpad?
Well, imagine you had a step-by-step guide on how to turn your idea into a real business and launch your own company.
That’s the launchpad. An individual journey, adapting to your needs and skills, taking you by the hand, and showing you all the steps you need to take to build your own business.
Learn more about it and apply here!
Looking for more ways to contribute?
🏴☠️ Become captain of your local chapter: Drive impact in your local community by opening up a chapter and gathering a community of young changemakers in your area. Find out more here.
🏴☠️ Contribute to our Community: We would love to see you participate in our community, so if you want to write a post for our blog, social media or wish to contribute in any other way, write us at . We’re more than happy to hear from you!
Never stop rocking, Pirates! You did amazingly well and we can’t wait to see what happens next with you and with your ideas.
