Good evening, everyone and thank you for joining us all at this wonderful venue as we celebrate a landmark moment for the Earthshot Prize - the development of Launchpad.
When I first started thinking about how I might contribute to the collective global effort to protect our planet in 2018, I knew that I wanted to mobilize the enormous power of innovators wherever they are in the world, from businesses, cities and governments to activists, scientists and innovators, the ideas and ambition to set our planet on a healthier path do already exist.
But this is urgent. We are in the critical decade right now. And that is why to have real impact we must focus on supporting and developing as many solutions as possible and scale them at speed.
It is not an easy task. We must overcome the challenge of getting capital to the right sectors, solutions and geographies. Since 2021, the Earthshot Prize has awarded 15 million pounds worth of prize money and sourced 50 million pounds worth of further support for our 45 winners and finalists.
And since becoming Earthshot Prize finalists, our cohorts have directly improved the lives of almost 4.4 million people and protected or restored almost 22,000 square kilometers of land and ocean. But we want to do more.
That is why I'm delighted that through Launchpad we can now catalyze funding on an even greater scale. We will now be able to connect our innovators right across the world with a huge network of investors and philanthropists.
Launchpad is already already gained significant traction, 25 innovative solutions with funding needs exceeding $500 million are currently spotlighted by Launchpad and 135 institutional investors are already signed up as members.
And thanks to Launchpad even in these very early days Earthshot Prize winner Notplar has secured three and a half million pounds worth in funding towards their 10 million funding round.
I was delighted to spend time with Pierre, the co-founder and co-CEO of Notplar last Friday as they also announced a new multi-million pound contract that will remove 75 million single-use plastic containers from over 50 arenas across the UK and Europe in the next three years.
As Launchpad grows, we will continue to bring best in-class innovations source through our powerful search engine which identifies solutions around the world.
But what we need now is the capital, we need you investors and philanthropists to join us in our mission. Join our community and invite your peers to be a part of this journey, together we can support our innovators to scale their solutions.
It is only through collective action that we will reach the ambitious 2030 targets we have set to save our planet. It is only through action that we will create a sustainable future for generations to come.