The Green Alley Award 2022 – Statistical insights

Italy, UK and Germany again at the forefront

This year, we received applications from 25 European countries. Just like in previous years, the majority of the applications came from Germany (62) that is 35% of all applications. 15 are from Berlin startups, but the rest is evenly distributed between various places in Germany – 5 from Frankfurt, 5 from Munich and 4 from Hamburg and the remaining 33 are from all over the country. On second rank is Italy – just like last year. Most of our Italian applicants are from Milan (25%), closely followed by Turin (21%). An article about the Italian startup scene from 2019, already predicted that Turin would become the new startup hotspot in Italy – a trend that is reflected in our Green Alley Award evaluations. And why exactly Italy? Well, the country is at the forefront when it comes to circularity: Italy decided to invest 40% of its resources in its sustainable transformation within the next years, its urban waste recycling rate is significantly over the European average and many Italian companies invest in green products and technologies. These factors might explain the increase of Italian applications in recent years. Almost 12 % of all applications and thus the 3rd highest share reached us from the UK. 7 of the 21 UK startups are from London – a share similar to previous years, but the rest was evenly spread across the whole country. According to the The Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2021, London remains one of the top 5 startup ecosystems in the world, besides Silicon Valley, New York, Beijing and Boston.

Trending Topics

In general, the technology branch is gaining importance for green Startups, an observation which doesn’t necessarily hold true for our applications: Only 25% of our applications are digital solutions – 34 % are focused on recycling and 41% on waste prevention. According to Green Startup Monitor, every 4th green startup develops a technology or digital solution. Bearing in mind that Green startup Monitor is focusing on Germany alone it makes sense to take a closer look at our German applications : 34% presented a digital solution which is thus above the average pointed out by the Green Startup Monitor. According to the Global Startup Ecosystem report, the pandemic has been a catalyst to the rapid growth of technological and digital innovations. One remarkable aspect of the digital innovations that reached us this year is that many involve AI technologies – a development which is definitely going to continue in the future. Taking a closer look at all applications, four main trend areas become visible: Circular fashion, zero waste shopping, reusable take-away packaging and share economy. The principal waste streams the startups focus on this year are packaging (22,5% ) and textile waste (13%). Other frequently represented waste streams are food waste (10%), electrical and electronic waste (7,3 %) and critical raw materials (5,6 %).