Waste that's worth gold: the 'Shark Tank'-style circular economy Demo Day

Four minutes to present. Five more minutes to answer questions. Only one chance to convince the jury. So began the Demo Day of CircularEconomy4Colombia, on March 11 at the EAN University in Bogota. Representatives of ten startups that are committed to transforming ‘waste’ into opportunities took the stage to present their ideas in a Shark Tank-type format. There were no real sharks, but there was plenty of tension: a relentless timer and a panel of five investors ready to listen to – and question – each proposal.

Away from the stage, the teams paced back and forth going over figures, rehearsing their speeches and reviewing the final details of their projects. Each, in their own way, was preparing to make those four minutes their golden opportunity. On the other side, five ‘sharks’ were waiting ready to bite: investors attentive to every word, number, or doubt that would put innovative ideas to the test.

Demo Day was the culmination of the CircularEconomy4Colombia Innovation Challenge, a program designed to promote innovative and scalable solutions that improve resource efficiency and waste reduction. In its initial phase, it received more than 400 applications from entrepreneurs, of which 21 were selected to participate in an intensive three-day bootcamp in October 2024, where they received specialized mentoring and tested their ideas in front of experts. At the end, the ten projects with the greatest potential for environmental impact and scalability accessed a three-month acceleration program in which they refined their business models and prepared for the big moment: Demo Day.