Further - Faster - Together
September was another exciting month for us at Levante. Here's a rundown of what we've been up to and what's on the horizon for the coming months The best Backers! Firstly we have to mention that we send a monthly update to all our Kickstarter and Indiegogo backers, and the replies we received after our last update have been a huge boost to our team! Positive and encouraging support from our customers is tangible feedback in our mission, and for that we are extremely grateful. SAIL magazine Levante and our origami solar panel has been featured in SAIL magazine (US/Global) in an article in their Gear section This is one of the world's foremost sailing publications and we're really grateful to be garnering such considerable exposure for Levante in the sailing consumer market. Startup Life and Innovation Support In late September Kim and I attended the European Leaders Program initiative as speakers. Organized by CDP, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti and LVenture, the event was held at the ZERO Cleantech Accelerator and the ENI Joule headquarters located in the beautiful settings of Gazometro, in Rome, Italy, in attendance were 14 peer organizations from 13 EU countries in the field of innovation. Together with BeAWaRe and ReLearn, Levante was asked to present our company and talk about what it means to have a startup in Italy and the support from the Italian and European innovation ecosystem. Further, faster, together. As members of the ZERO accelerator programme we discovered several other unique italian startups with real potential for synergies: Some of the exciting opportunities we are currently discussing are as follows A greentech startup specializing in electric boats will potentially use our origami solar panels to power charging stations for their rental fleet. Another initiative aims to use our technology for sustainable community development and environmental restoration in international settings We are also exploring partnerships with a firm focused on recycled composite resins for marine applications, as well as a company that is looking to advance solar panel technology in the aerospace sector. These discussions offer promising avenues for joint R&D, product development, and entry into the B2B market. And the winner is..... Well, we don't know yet, but Levante has been nominated as Best GreenTech 2023 in Italy for the 2023 Southern European Startup Awards We're extremely proud to be involved in this amazing event packed full of innovative startups making a tangible impact on our environment and in business. The startup ecosystem The Awards give an extensive overview of what the regional startup ecosystem activity looks like. More importantly, it enables the creation of meaningful relationships across founders, investors, and partners on a regional and global level which is an invaluable benefit. The regional awards are part of the larger Global Startup Awards connecting 122 countries over 4 continents. Optimizing for the first run We are working on the product optimization to get ready for the Kickstarter/Indiegogo production run and we are looking forward to being able to share some exciting news about the sustainability element of the solar panel which is currently under development together with our partners We are fundraising! We're thrilled to announce an important moment for Levante having crossed the $100,000 sales milestone through Kickstarter, Indiegogo and our own e-commerce, we're now poised for significant growth. The gates are open for our first investment round, aimed at expanding our team to boost marketing and product development, and entering the B2B segment. Be the change you want to see in the world... This is a chance to become a stakeholder in a brand committed to transformative change. We're actively undergoing due diligence with some highly promising partners and there's limited room for a few more investors to join us. We're committed, and appreciate your continued support. Imagine a day when you can roam the world, without it costing the Earth. That's our vision. We're committed to this vision, committed to this exciting journey and eternally grateful for your support.
Strengthening Bonds and Building Progress
Summer's transition has given us the perfect pause to reflect on our journey. The past few months have been filled with collaboration, learning, and growth; essential elements of making an impact in this world we love. Screen is good, hugs are better In July, our team had a long-awaited meetup in the beautiful waters of Sardinia. Although we have regular meetings online, getting together with Anthony and Gjertine in person reinforces the bond among our team members, bridging that gap in virtual communication. Photo: Anthony and Kim getting some work done, after the sunrise swimAnthony has been in the maritime industry for most of his adult life: First as crew and skipper onboard private sailing yachts in both northern and southern hemispheres. Later, he managed sailboat refits and is now running his own rigging business in Norway. Gjertine is a graduate of the University of Agder with a bachelor's degree in global development with subjects in psychology and cross-cultural communication, and a master's degree in social science. Together they are working to refine how Levante communicates its mission and values. It's during these times together that our vision becomes clearer, the collective energy gets a boost, and we allow ourselves the opportunity to align ever closer to each other, and to Levante's mission. Collaboration is KEY One of the most fun meetings we've had this year so far has been getting together with Dan and Kika, the hearts behind Sailing Uma. We had the opportunity to discuss the rigorous testing of our prototype panels and the improvements we can implement as well as a great chat with them about their full-on project to essentially rebuild their 50 year old sailing boat Uma, instead of scraping her and looking for a new boat, another reminder of aligned values. Our collaboration with Sailing Uma isn't just a partnership in the conventional sense. It's a confluence of hands-on experience, technical expertise, creative curiosity and enthusiastic execution. Their deep involvement in the sailing community offers us insights that are hard to come by. They have not just been testers but co-developers, providing feedback that stems from real-world challenges. Photo: Dan, Anthony, Kika, Kim checking the latest solar panel prototype tested by Sailing Uma The symbiotic relationship ensures that while we strive to innovate technological solutions, we root our innovations in practicality life a testament to the idea that when two parties with shared values and complementary skills come together the outcome is often greater than the sum of its parts Togetherness wins. Collective effort is at the heart of our journey. From team meetups to collaborations with partners like Sailing Uma, it's evident that our strength lies in unity. The synergy between different minds, each passionate and skilled in their domains is what makes our vision robust and achievable. That synergy extends out from our core team to you-our wider team - our community. While product details matter, it's the broader purpose, shared with our community, that truly resonate. Our belief in renewable energy's transformative power, bolstered by partnerships like with Sailing Uma and invaluable feedback from users like you, propels us forward Together, we're more than just a brand with products and customers, we're a community united in purpose
Lessons learned from the Levante Kickstarter Campaign
I often find that having a conversation about a subject really helps me to clarify and solidify my own understanding of it, a sort of 'internalizing' process. So I thought it would be a good idea to go through that process with our recent Kickstarter campaign Hopefully you'li get some interesting takeaways too! The Mission As you may know, Levante's mission is to create a positive impact in the world by creating clean energy solutions. We are now at the stage of pre-selling our Origami Solar Panel, currently being finalized for production. Our decision to choose Kickstarter as our crowdfunding platform aligned perfectly with our values. Kickstarter's focus on creativity and mission to "help bring creative projects to life" resonated deeply with our commitment at Levante, to be the change we wish to see in the world. Funded in under one hour! I am thrilled to share that our Kickstarter campaign was a real success! in under one hour after launch, we surpassed our funding goal of $10,000, and in total, we raised an incredible $94,022. Of the total 77 supporters who backed our campaign the overwhelming majority come from the US; not surprising as the Kickstarter platform is US based and has a large US audience. We have some backers from Canada and the remainder are mostly from Europe: The Netherlands, Germany, UK and Italy ranking highest. Now, as we move forward, we are excited to be able to continue pre-sales on the indiegogo platform on our way to establishing our own ecommerce platform. So what did we learn from the campaign...? Shared values One of the key factors contributing to our success was the collaboration with social media influencers who share our values. Our strategic partner, YouTube channel Salling Uma, played a crucial role by exposing our early prototypes to their audience. The credibility and support and trust that Kika and Dan have built up among their audience over the past 10 years has added an incredible level of trustworthiness to our product and provided valuable social proof. The majority of backers who are supporting us have come from the Sailing Uma audience. The Uma Nation as Dan and Kika would call it, added to the strong US base of the backers. A better understanding We now better understand our customer journey from discovery to purchase The Origami Solar Panel being a premium product and at the higher end of the price spectrum Our future customers need time to evaluate the product's features, advantages, and understand the suitability for their applications. It is a technical product and so it requires time for evaluation and comparison. Experts make the difference It was incredibly valuable to have experts managing the campaign. Big thanks for the success go to our key partners including Andrea Baldereschi's team at the Andrea Baldereschi Crowdfunding Agency who were instrumental in managing our Kickstarter campaign. Evergreen Design House who produced stunning visuals, with an amazing campaign shoot in Liguria, Italy Eventys Partners and Jellop helped wrap up the campaign successfully in the US CARO Communications enhanced our media presence with multiple publications both online and in print; notably in The Guardian, The Cool Hunting, Design Week, Innovation and Tech Today, PV Magazine and Designboom. The community is the future One of the key milestones we have reached during the Kickstarter campaign is building the foundation of a community. Our backers, with their belief in our product and mission are an essential part of our future at Levante. A community who are contributing to our vision of a more sustainable future, where adventures are driven by clean and efficient energy. We can't wait to get these solar panels into their hands, to hear their stories, to watch their adventures and to continue improving and innovating together. In order to keep our backers updated and to start building a close and transparent relationship with them, we are creating monthly video updates with the latest news, milestones, challenges and successes on the way to delivering the first production run. The right stuff.... So to summarize, having the right partners contributing in the right roles was key to our campaign success. If we had chosen to go it alone and tried to execute the campaign ourselves. I'm not sure it would have been the same success story. There is of course a critical element not to be forgotten; identifying and engaging the right partners. I am sure I speak for the whole Levante team when I say that having values by which to evaluate decisions makes the process much more manageable, if not always particularly easy. Cheers! Anthony
Reflections from the past year as Levante celebrates its 2nd birthday
Dear Friends of Levante, It's Sara here, CEO of Levante, the greentech startup producing portable Origami Solar Panels. This is our first blog page since the foundation of Levante in 2021 and during this time, Levante has been on a relentless journey. As we put on our party hats and celebrated the second anniversary of our founding on June 24th, I felt it was the perfect opportunity to reconnect and share with you the incredible strides we've taken over the past year, culminating in launching our Origami Solar Panel internationally on the Kickstarter platform just in time for our birthday! The last twelve months have been filled with significant milestones, partnerships, and valuable lessons. They stand as a testament to our commitment to innovation and continuous improvement. The theme throughout 2022 was a focus on collaboration and strategic partnerships on the business front; and iteration, testing and refinement on the product front. We successfully produced the first functioning prototypes, collaborating with the University Spinoff from Turin Microla; Incorporating photovoltaics, a carbon fiber frame produced in collaboration with ACS, our partner in the motorsport industry, metal hinges, and triangular modules, all designed into our innovative folding structure. We presented this prototype at the ZERO accelerator program where we received valuable insights and feedback. The unique folding design and the high-quality carbon fiber frame instantly captured attention. As soon as we finished the ZERO accelerator programme at the end of March 2022, we went on the road... As April started we embarked on our "Levante On tour" journey, traveling across several countries in our RV to showcase our product to key stakeholders and potential customers in the marine and mobility sectors. During this phase we pitched a lot, and learned lots of valuable lessons. We discovered that the B2B market requires significant customization and support, leading us to shift our focus primarily to the B2C market, leveraging the collaboration with our strategic partner Sailing Uma. We also realized that while the solar tracking system and custom electronics and lot posed challenges, the portable solar panel itself had tremendous potential. Therefore, we made the decision to prioritize the development of the panel's hardware, mechanics and design while putting the other features on the schedule for later development. "Levante on tour" ended in Mallorca as we entered into August 2022: where we took another step in our most important partnership. We mounted our first fully functioning prototype onboard Sailing Uma's electric sailboat. After creating a plywood prototype and flying out to Iceland in 2021 to meet with Dan and Kika from Sailing Uma Levante's partnership with Dan and Kika has continued to develop and now we are lucky enough to have these maritime experts supporting the design, development and testing of our all our prototypes. This installation was documented on the Sailing Uma YouTube channel, and led to a big boost in interest in the Origami Solar Panel and our first sales. Watch the episode here. We were able to evaluate and analyze comments from viewers and learn what we needed to communicate in order to explain the product more clearly to the market. This prototype underwent rigorous testing to assess its durability and reliability in a multitude of challenging conditions. After the excitement and activity of traveling in the summer, we were back on the road once again in November 2022, this time to Amsterdam and the METS trade show; the world's leading trade exhibition specifically for the marine Industry. This was an important platform for us to showcase our product and expand our network. We received a lot of positive feedback and created valuable relationships with opportunities for further development. Collaborations continued to play a crucial role in our journey. We partnered with the design engineering agency ManEvotech Srl to optimize the product and create a pre-series version. We also engaged in fruitful collaborations with SallHub, Sunspeker, EasySea, Hochschule für Technik Stuttgart, Unicredit Start Lab, EIT Urban Mobility Energy and Public Realm accelerator and our shareholder partner Growith Advisory & Investment. Throughout January '23 to the present day, we have continued to refine the product. We are proud to be able to share with you some of the enhancements made to the solar panel. We now have two versions available, one with a 330W output and a larger 500W output version. The large panel, at 500W is more powerful than initially planned, and the most powerful portable solar panel on the market by a significant margin! It is also lighter than competitor panels with 20% less power output. The structure has been optimized for rigidity, and we have simplified the overall concept, transitioning from triangular modules to parallelogram and trapeze shapes, as tested by Sailing Uma and documented on their YouTube channel. Additionally, we have introduced a modular design, with marine-grade zips connecting each module, enabling tailor-made power solutions to individual consumer applications. Eyelets have been added to facilitate easy fixing and hanging of the panel as well as securing the panel in windy conditions. The solar panel boasts a range of unique features that just aren't found anywhere else on the market. We are now finalizing details of a partnership with a supplier for photovoltaics in Italy, conducting a life cycle assessment of the latest iteration of the product in collaboration with Hochschule fur Technik Stuttgart; starting out on new collaborations with the Andrea Baldereschi Agency, EverGreen Design House and Caro Communications for marketing and our Kickstarter campaign; and continuing to develop new strategic partnerships. We also welcomed new crew members, Gjertine and Anthony, whose contributions in communication, branding, and upholding Levante's values have strengthened our team and allowed us to increase our focus and intensity towards perhaps our most important milestone to date; our Kickstarter campaign. Our Kickstarter campaign represents an opportunity to build a community around innovating solutions for portable clean energy, accelerating the transition to clean energy in mobility; a foundational aspect of Levante's mission. We are now building one on one relationships with customers and validating the panel and its potential accessories and upgrades in the consumer marketplace. As we move forward, we want to express our gratitude for your support. Your feedback, enthusiasm, and your help in spreading the word to a wider audience have been and continue to be vital to our progress. We are excited to bring Levante's innovative solar solutions to market and create a sustainable future together.