MENA startups are starting to catch on to climate as a business: As the long-term effects of the climate crisis are being felt more acutely, there’s a growing need to respond with creative solutions, as a recent World Economic Forum opinion piece notes. Here are five MENA climate-focused startups doing just that, by using innovation to address specific climate challenges.

1- Shift EV: Egyptian mobility startup working to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicle (EV) batteries for commercial vehicles. Transport accounts for around one-fifth of global CO2 emissions and an estimated 29.4% of this comes from trucks carrying freight. Egypt alone has over 1.5 mn commercial vehicles on its roads. Though EVs are widely hailed as a way to reduce this impact, they’re also a lot more expensive than conventional vehicles. Electric mobility startup Shift EV is addressing this problem by retrofitting fleets with EV batteries and drive trains — at a fraction of the cost of buying a new vehicle.

How does it work? Shift EV converts conventional delivery fleets into EVs using proprietary, locally-manufactured batteries. The battery packages are made of Lego-like modules that can be combined in different sizes, form factors and voltages to make optimum use of the engine compartments in different vehicle models. This use of customizable batteries allows Shift EV to work at an industrial automotive rate, converting individual vehicles to EVs in less than a few hours and full delivery fleets in just days. The company currently retrofits minivans and tricycles with EV battery packages, and is set to add pickup trucks “soon.”

How does it generate income? The company uses a subscription model, with no upfront charges. It offers logistics fleets the chance to save some 30% of operating costs, and then takes a piece of those savings.

Shift EV had closed a total of USD 9 mn in funding as of April 2022. At least part of this came from an undisclosed Series A round that was backed by existing investors Union Square Ventures, along with Algebra Ventures, Wamda, and first-time investor Oman Technology Fund (OTF).

2- Manhat: Solar-powered desalination in the UAE. Desalination is often hailed as an integral solution to our global water woes — but traditionally it’s an expensive and energy-intensive process that produces lots of CO2 emissions and sees polluting brine released back into our air and oceans. The UAE’s Manhat wants to change things: The startup, founded in 2019, has been making waves this year with its use of solar-powered water distillation technology to produce desalinated water for irrigation.

How does it work? Manhat uses greenhouse-like floating structures that trap evaporated vapor from areas of open water (like the sea). As the vapor rises, it touches the cooler sides of the structures and forms water droplets. Once the water is collected, the idea is for it to be immediately used to irrigate crops on floating farms — though these have yet to be piloted.

Manhat has been attracting national and international recognition: Manhat recently received the European Commission-established water tech platform Water Europe Innovation 2022 SMEs award. It also was previously awarded the Thought for Food 2022 Mena Agri-Food-Tech Challenge, which took place at the Food for Future summit — beating over 170 applicants from the region.

3- Uvera: Saudi smart food storage system prolonging the shelf life of fresh food. Globally — and in all income brackets — food waste is a huge problem, with clear ecological and economic consequences, according to the UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2021. Founded in 2019, and headquartered at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), biotech startup Uvera uses non-chemical techniques to store and prolong the shelf life of food.

How does it work? Uvera smart devices have a base unit that vacuum seals containers to extend the shelf life of food stored in the devices. But they also use UV-C light sterilization to kill viruses and bacteria, including covid, salmonella, E.coli and H1N1, helping to reduce food spoilage, explains founder Asrar Damdam (watch, runtime: 01:36). This can increase the shelf life of fresh food by up to 97%, when the device is used for only 30 seconds, adds Damdam. Uvera also has several mobile app features, including an online fridge inventory and food spoilage notifications.

Uvera is in the process of raising USD 3 mn in funding, Forbes Middle East noted when naming Damdam in its 30 Under 30 2021. The company made it to the top ten of the Thought for Food 2022 Mena Agri-Food-Tech Challenge, it noted several months ago.

4- Algebra Intelligence: Jordanian AI startup to monitor energy usage. An estimated 20% of all businesses’ annual energy costs are wasted through the usage of inefficient equipment, according to Carbon Trust. Jordanian startup Algebra Intelligence uses machine learning to help end-users — whether homeowners or businesses — use their energy more efficiently and save on costs.

How does it work? Algebra Intelligence has created a mobile app and web-based platform, TaQTaK, that allows clients to monitor their electricity consumption and energy usage from their solar PV systems, by providing data analytics on a real-time dashboard. Features include energy forecasting and predictive maintenance notifications. Using machine learning models and algorithms to analyze patterns in data sets, the system is able to forecast energy generation capacity and make predictions about energy demand. It can also identify defects in energy infrastructure, scheduling check-ups and improving long-term performance.

Founded in 2020, the company closed a USD 310k pre-seed round in 2021, led by Oasis500. It was also named one of Forbes’ 10 Sustainable Startups in MENA last year.

5- Cupmena: Egyptian agritech firm growing mushrooms from used coffee grounds. Where do used coffee grounds go? Turns out, they’re usually dumped in landfills along with general waste, where they emit methane — a greenhouse gas with over 20 times the global warming capacity of CO2. Cupmena was founded in 2019 to make better use of coffee’s fertilizer properties, and reduce harmful methane emissions.

How does it work? Cupmena has developed a biotech system to cultivate organic mushrooms using spent coffee grounds as the main soil. The mushrooms themselves are then sold, and the used mushroom soil is converted into organic fertilizer. The process maximizes nutritional value from the used coffee grounds and helps to reduce CO2 emissions that would otherwise come from them being sent to landfill, while the methane it produces can be captured and used to generate electricity.

Cupmena has seen investment to the value of at least USD 100k, which was announced in late-2020.