About

Climate change and human interventions have made our cities unsustainable and bound to bear the brunt of climate challenges. Examples are numerous: heat trapped in the city (Heat Island Effect) raises temperatures by several degrees risking human health. Hard surfaces and lack of greenery lead to reduced absorption/filtering of pollution, dust and particles, and to flash floods during extreme weather events combined with climate change. Living green areas on buildings' roofs and walls is the best nature-based solution for many of these problems: reducing heat & noise, filtering pollution & particles, creating biodiversity hotspots, controlling storm-water flows & reducing floods, etc. Green roofs and walls companies use complicated, expensive systems making them elitist, expensive and used sparingly for aesthetic purposes. BabylonGardens (Green Deal IKE) provides technologies that make nature-based urban green economical and easy to install, addressing climate change, contributing to jobs creation, and leading to the democratization of urban green for everyone, one roof, one wall at a time.

Solution & Product

BabylonGardens is an Innovation Lab for Urban Green Spaces. It brings solutions for greening urban environments through innovative and affordable technologies that allow everyone to be part of the cities’ transformation needed to address climate change. BabylonGardens has developed and patented two technologies: •Fully recyclable, modular and affordable technology for the fast and safe installation of super-lightweight green roofs •Cost-efficient, easy-to-build technology for green walls by collecting and reusing single-use plastic bottles without discarding any part. Through its innovation hub character, it also brings to developers/architects innovative solutions leading to sustainable approaches: •Exclusive representation of the Nevana Starpath glowing paths leading to significant electricity savings for safer parks and pathways •Exclusive representation of GSky Plant Systems, the most acclaimed builder of green walls globally, for architecturally demanding green wall solutions

Innovation & Scalability

BabylonGardens equals sustainable innovation in urban spaces and the built environment. In 2019, its co-founder (S. Kouvelis) received the 1st Patent from OBI/HIPO on the innovative modular, super-lightweight, water-saving Green Roofs technology, while in 2020 he received the 2nd Patent for Green Walls made from the reutilization of single-use plastic bottles. Both have been put to commercial use exclusively through BabylonGardens. Both are in very advanced stages with the 1st classified under EU TRL9 and the 2nd classified under EU TRL7. Innovation and cost are key competitive advantages. In Greece there is still limited development. Most projects are in hotels and shopping areas (some built by BabylonGardens); in London the Athenaeum has 7 floors of lush greenery; the entire side of Madrid Caixa is blanketed in plants; in Paris, the Musée Branly has a green wall made of 15000 plants on 800 m2. By 2023, London aims to have 100 hectares of plant-entwined rooftops and walls. The global green wall market held a market value of USD 1.1 Billion in 2021 estimated to reach USD 3.2 billion by 2030 (CAGR of more than 11%). BabylonGardens customers come from the residential and business (hotels, shops/shopping areas, offices) sector, with growing interest for public buildings (such as OASIS - Schoolyards Project in Paris (https://uia-initiative.eu/en/uia-cities/paris-call3 ), and Smart blue-green roofs in Amsterdam (https://uia-initiative.eu/en/news/journal-3-completing-and-deliverin

Traction & achievements

The initial and very successful steps by BabylonGardens include: - Two residential Green Roofs of appr. 80m2 in Holargos and Pikermi area in 2019 - Two Green Walls in the COCO-MAT hotels (Kolonaki and Acropolis) in 2019 and 2020 - 15km of Nevana Starpath Glowing path in Southern Crete in 2022 - 10m2 Green Wall in the Papagou area in 2022 - 150m2 Green Roof in a private penthouse in Glyfada in 2022 - 260m2 of Green Roof in the school of Limni (Evia) in collaboration with Athens Brewery Besides the projects, the BabylonGardens technologies have won numerous awards/recognition at International competitions: - ClimAccelerator by Climate-KIK 2021 - Mediteranée du Futur shortlisted 2019 - French Tech 2018 - Mazinnov finalist 2017 - Hellenic Entrepreneurship Award shortlisted 2015 Very importantly, the Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL) Foundation included BabylonGardens among the 5 start-ups it chose to support globally https://www.jll.com.mx/en/newsroom/jll-launches-non-profit-focused-on-mitigating-climate-change

Team & Why Us

- Christina Deligianni, Managing Director, Lead advisor to innovative sustainable technologies companies since 2014, business development of innovative technologies for energy efficiency, cleaner production and consumption and ESG/sustainable finance, with collaborations in the EU and Mediterranean, the USA, Japan, UAE and Australia - Spyros Kouvelis, Tech Development and Project Director. Patent holder/founder of BabylonGardens. A seasoned expert on sustainable development in the EU and Mediterranean region and beyond - Minothea Diamantogianni, Architecture Graduate/Landscape Architect with special interest in innovative solutions for sustainable urban development. Design and development of the BabylonGardens technologies application to specific projects - Nikos Therapos, Business Development, Communication and Promotion - Nausica Kouvelis, Intellectual Property Law counsellor, managing the IP matters of BabylonGardens technologies - Theodore Kritharas, Legal counsel - Panagiotis Katsinelis, Finance & Accounting BabylonGardens expects a steady growth of >40% annually for the next 3-5 years for Green Roofs, with the same numbers for Green Walls but starting around 2 years later.

Funding Needs

BabylonGardens products/technologies are sold through direct sales - immediate collaboration with end owners of a project, or through intermediary sales channels - mostly through developers and architects/project designers who introduce BabylonGardens solutions in their design specs. Installation may be done by third party crews, under the guidance and supervision of BabylonGardens to ensure good application and avoidance of potential failures, with after-market close support of the project owners in terms of maintenance and care. In order to further develop its technologies and deploy the full market outreach plan, including its pay-as-you-use business model, BabylonGardens is looking for an investor willing to participate in the company (equity) with a ticket of EUR 1 million.