Tunis Startup, Kumulus Among Winners of EBRD’s Startup Competition 

Kumulus, a Tunisian startup that operates in the water industry is among the winners of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (EBRD) startup competition.

EBRD AgVenture Challenge aims to support innovative early-stage agribusiness technology startups in the EBRD economies.

The winners were announced at the EBRD Consumer Rules Summit held in Zagreb, Serbia. The summit connects entrepreneurs with international investors, retailers, food producers, regulatory authorities, and other relevant stakeholders.

Founded in 2021 by Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid, Kumulus uses solar power and air humidity to operate machines that replicate the dew phenomenon to produce fresh drinking water. Kumulus is tackling the challenge of water scarcity in some parts of Tunisia. The startup focuses on markets where there is no reliable source of renewable drinking water, according to the founder.

Other winners of the competition include Turkey startup, Biftek and Hungarian startup, Smapp Lab. The second runners-up include Bulgarian startup that produces edible cups, Cuppfee and agritech startup, Ondo while Tunisian start-up Seabex came third.

The winners will receive a tailored advisory service valued at €80,000 and a €10,000 grant for additional services, visibility at global forums and connection to EBRD. Winners were selected based on the relevance of the problem the startups will tackle, the go-to-market strategy, the product/service differentiation, progress and traction, the experience of the team and financing.

This is not the one challenge the startup has won. In 2021, Kumulus was awarded the POESAM International Grand Prize sponsored by Orange and was valued at £15,000. The startup also won the first Vivatech 2022 prize for water sector start-ups. Kumulus is among the fifteen most promising “GreenTech” start-ups in Africa.

In September 2022, the start-up secured a pre-seed funding round of €1 million from diverse investors.