Three winners emerge in 2024 TotalEnergies’ Startupper Challenge

TotalEnergies’ has revealed winners of the fourth edition of the company’s annual startupper challenge.

In a statement released to the media, the winners emerged after a keenly contested competition which saw 5906 applications and 1540 successful applicants. Out of this number, 100 projects were selected with 14 finalists eventually making their pitches to the judges, a local panel of experts.

Ultimately, three winners emerged in different categories with astounding innovations. The winners are:

• Temitope YAKUBU – Innov’Up category for Best Entrepreneur with INTERKOOL BY FARMCI:
  FarmCI’s InterKool Storage Pod is a portable, solar-powered solution for preserving and transporting farm produce, extending shelf life and reducing disease risk for small-scale farmers and retailers.

• Jacob ABIODUN – Cycle’Up category for Best Circular Economy project with COCONOTO: Transforming the coconut value chain for a greener, more sustainable future.

• Emmanuel ABAH – Power’Up category for Best Sustainable and Affordable Project with WASTE2LIGHT LTD: Waste2light Wind and Hydro Turbine is a pioneering initiative to produce electricity from wind and hydro sources, by converting plastic waste into 3D printed wind and hydro components. Waste2light is championing to power Nigeria with clean electricity.

To ensure the sustainability of their innovations, the winners will each receive a grant of N8M. They will also be given personalized support to develop their projects, along with local visibility, to boost awareness of their plans.

This challenge is a facet of the “Ideas Need Energy to Grow” initiative of TotalEnergies’ which is geared towards providing financial and mentorship support to young innovators and technologies for them to become successful entrepreneurs; and as well to ensure their solutions are given the necessary support to grow and scale into sustainable businesses.

Over the last four years, TotalEnergies’ has been hosting the StartUpper of the Year Challenge. The 2024 edition, which is the fourth in the series hit some historic figures as it had over 32 participating countries, 40,000 registrations submitted on the platform with 14,000 complete applications.