The joint EIT RawMaterials and Veolia incubator programme for start-ups in the field of circular economy is open!

U-START Go Circular! goal is to ensure an intense cooperation to accelerate your time to market. To be considered for the start-up program, you have to prove a societal and environmental benefit of your concept in the following three to five years.

The U-START ambition is to accelerate the time to market of the innovative concepts through the support of EIT RawMaterials and Veolia in a “co-creation” mode. In particular, the intention is to test the concepts on the industry and commercial sites of Veolia in Germany, providing first references in a real environment.

About U-START

  • Up to two year mentoring program and cooperation with two leading institutions with strong market experiences
  • Veolia: world leader in environmental solution deployment, as your industrial mentoring partner
  • The allocation of a seed funding (see above) to perform a field validation of your innovation
  • EIT RawMaterials: business development partner giving you support in business model and product development
  • Taking advantage of Veolia and EIT RawMaterials’ expertise and client base to form your business ideas into a market solution
  • Up to two year office location on the EUREF-Campus, a very inspiring innovation campus in Germany
  • ​Networking with our other young and innovative start-ups

The cooperation is proposed for start-ups with innovative concepts in these fields:

  • Recycling of composite materials with focus on metal/plastic composites and other difficult waste streams

  • WEEE (waste of electrical and electronic equipment), battery and catalyst recycling

  • Novel ecodesign concepts to increase industrial use of recycled product

Application process

For all the innovators interested in the in U-START call, please send an e-mail with your pitch deck at de-ustart@veolia.com until 22 June, 2018.

The U-START team will get back to you with feedback about your idea as soon as possible and invite you to officially submit your application! We politely ask you not to apply before the feedback is received to guarantee the best results for both sides.

U-START timeline:

  • 2 May – 22 June: Application period
  • 22 June – 5 July: Internal evaluation phase of all applications
  • Second week of July: First feedback on your application & if we are interested: invitation to Veolia Startup Village
  • 29 August: Pitch your idea in front of Veolia employees (about ten start-ups invited – Berlin)
  • After the Startup Village: In case you get chosen (second selection round): Concrete elaboration of a joint innovation project with you & Veolia mentor
  • Around second or third week in October 2018: Final pitch in front of CEO and Veolia top management; announcement of winner
  • December 2018: Start of cooperation

Joint offer to start-ups

Three support packages depending on your level of maturity can be combined, if needed:

  • Kick-start funding: Proof-of-concept and feasibility study, including laboratory tests and business case validation.
  • Start-up booster: Infrastructure or incubator services for getting support towards tests on industrial sites, including protecting IP.
  • Funding instruments: Direct investment to boost your growth, including large scale demo project and marketing concept.