During the reporting period [01/05/2015-31/10/2015] the GReen Desalination team performed the following activities:
- We participated in seven (7) conferences: (a) Brokerage event: "Research and Development: the key for development", organized by the Federation of Hellenic Food Industries, where we presented our solution to Greek food industries. This event lead to follow-up meetings with Greek industries such as Coca-Cola; (b) IWWA TV Conference 2015 Industrial Waste and Wastewater Valorization, where we delivered an oral presentation; (c) European Maritime Day: during the event we were awarded the 1st Blue Growth Award by the Commissioner for the Environment and Maritime Affairs, Mr. Karmenu Vella; (d) Water Conference 2015: we delivered an oral presentation, attracting the interest of Greek and international companies such as GDF Suez; (e) WssTP Conference 2015, during this conference the company was made visible to more than 200 water stakeholders, as well as we participated in two Working Groups, namely: Resource Recovery Working Group and Water& Industry Working Group; (f) Resources Info Day: this conference was organized by the European Commission. The GReen Desalination team participated in the event on 21.09.2015 networking with potential partners for submitting proposals to scale up our technology; and (g) SPIRE Info Day: this conference was organized by the Platform for Sustainable Process Industries in collaboration with the European Commission. During this event we attracted the interest of more than 30 stakeholders, which were interested to participate in the proposal that we will submit in March 2016, under the call Circular Economy 1.
- We participated in the STARTUPBOOTCAMP competition, which was organized by the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The organizers of this competition screened more than 15,000 companies and selected only 10, GReen Desalination being one of which. The Scientific Coordinator of GReen Desalination project moved from Greece to the Netherlands, where he had the opportunity to network with Dutch Industries, Partners and Investors. The Acceleration Program lasted from 01.09.2015 - 26.11.2015. On 26 November a presentation was delivered in an audience of 1,000 people, 120 out of which Investors.
- We submitted a position paper to the Open Consultation on the Circular Economy on 20.08.2015
- We were invited to participate in the Seminar "Access to finance for circular economy projects – preparing a project pipeline" on 16.09.2015. The event was organized by the European Commission and the European Investment Bank and had as an objective to investigate possibilities to be funded by EIB.
- We submitted a Position Paper on 31.09.2015 in collaboration with EU Salt Organization to the European Commission, presenting the market opportunity to recover the minerals from the salty wastewater effluent (brine) produced by desalination plants.
- We established a start-up company in the Netherlands named SEALEAU B.V (the company was finally established in November 2015). This company has the objective to commercialize the eco-innovative GReen Desalination technology. SEALEAU has submitted a proposal under SME Phase 2 call, with the GReen Desalination 2 on 25.11.2015.
- The company has attracted the interest of at lease six investors. We are currently under discussions to raise private funding of €500K, in order to include investors in the shareholder structure and implement the business plan developed.
- We have identified our lead customer. We are currently signing up this customer for a five year leasing period. We are going to finance the Capital Expenditure of the equipment and they are going to pay to the company a leasing fee per cubic meter. This module will cover 10% of the total capacity of the industry, which will be expanded to the whole capacity within the next two years. The financial model will change from leasing to licensing model for the rest of the capacity.
- We have prepared a patent that will be applied within 2016
- During the six months period, the GReen Desalination team collaborated closely with STARTUPBOOTCAMP and Ernst & Young to develop the Financial Model and to identify the beachead market. The market introduction strategy was completely changed, after having determined the lead customer in the Netherlands. The municipalities, which were initially thought as our first customers, have now been recognized as the long-term customer. The industry has been identified to have an immediate need to manage their salty wastewater. Our lead customer has already reached the limits of their permit, so they a need a solution for elimination of salty wastewater in order to continue their business development.
