C40’s global competition celebrates women innovators and helps accelerate technological solutions to climate change
Winners will see their solution implemented in Paris and Tel Aviv
Paris, France (20 February 2019) — Two inspiring young women tech entrepreneurs, Elodie Grimoin and Inna Braverman, were today announced as the winners of the C40 Women4Climate Tech Challenge. The winners will receive support and acceleration from C40 and its partners and will have the opportunity to see their projects brought to life in Paris or Tel Aviv-Yafo. The Urban Lab from Paris&Co in Paris and The Platform: Urban Innovation Center in Tel Aviv-Yafo will support in the roll-out of the winning project in these cities. The C40 Women4Climate Tech Challenge is made possible with the support of Autodesk.
Elodie Grimoin, Urban Canopee, Paris
Urban Canopee offers innovative solutions to fight against the effects of climate change by deploying plant canopies over cities. These plant canopies help reduce the heat generated in cities, reduce dangerous air pollution and restore biodiversity, making communities greener, healthier and more liveable. Urban Canopee provides autonomous and connected vegetal structures, thereby massively accelerating the greening of surfaces available on the ground and on the facade or roof of a building – wherever trees cannot grow.
Elodie Grimoin is the cofounder and CTO of Urban Canopee. She studied Engineering at the Paris Institute of Technology for Life, Food and Environmental Sciences and is the author of books on Green Infrastructure.
Inna Braverman, Eco Wave Power, Tel Aviv-Yafo
Eco Wave Power is a world leading technology for extracting energy from ocean waves and converting it into electricity. The technology allows for the generation of efficient, fully renewable, and 100% emission-free electricity at affordable prices. Eco Wave Power harnesses the wave energy through uniquely shaped buoys that rise and fall with the motion of the waves. The pressure caused by the motion of the floaters is then delivered to the land located power station. The unique conversion system uses the pressure to spin a hydro motor, which is used to spin a generator, producing electricity and sending it to the grid. In 2016 Eco Wave Power opened the first 100KW grid connected power plant in Gibraltar.
Inna Braverman founded Eco Wave Power in 2011, at the age of 24. She studied at Haifa University, and is one of the only women sitting on the International Electrotechnical Commission, Committee for Marine Energy, which sets international standards for all electric technologies.
The winners of the Women4Climate Tech Challenge were selected by a panel of mayors and senior city officials, ahead of the third annual Women4Climate conference in Paris City Hall.
Ultimately, the Tech Challenge aims to cultivate ground-breaking climate solutions and create opportunities to see winning projects scaled and implemented in other C40 cities.
“Congratulations to Elodie and Inna for creating such inspiring and innovative projects that will make a tangible difference to the lives of citizens in cities around the world,” said Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris and Chair of C40 Cities. “I look forward to seeing the projects being developed and deployed here in Paris and in Tel Aviv- Yafo. Women entrepreneurs and tech innovators are leading the way in creating the future that we want and the future we can trust in.”
“The Women4Climate Tech Challenge addresses three issues that are high on our municipal agenda: the Environment; Women's Entrepreneurship; and Promoting Technology” said Mayor of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Ron Huldai. “Therefore, we are thrilled to be able to support a program that combines all three. Tel Aviv-Yafo thrives to work in collaboration with additional cities that are tech ecosystem leaders in order to harness innovative solutions to solving the social and urban challenges of the future."
The Women4Climate Tech Challenge was launched in September 2018 at the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, California. For more information on Women4Climate and the Tech Challenge, please visit
https://w4c.org/tech-challenge