As 2025 begins, we reflect on 2024, a year filled with innovation, collaboration and impact. From launching new projects to hosting game-changing events, here's a recap of our top highlights from the past year:

Launch of The Explorer Series Booklets: Kiel Region and Warsaw

The Kiel Region booklet, created in partnership with KielRegion, showcases this vibrant maritime hub's drive for sustainable innovation and entrepreneurship.

Meanwhile, the Warsaw booklet, in collaboration with the City of Warsaw, Venture Café Warsaw, CIC Innovation, DZP, Startup Hub Poland and CampusAI highlights Poland’s bustling capital as a thriving ecosystem for startups and innovators looking to scale.

Startup Guide Summit

November saw the highly anticipated Startup Guide Summit at Casa do Impacto in Lisbon, part of the Shaping the World Festival. This event united startups, investors, public sector representatives and ecosystem builders from 60 international startup ecosystems to explore solutions for today’s biggest challenges.

The summit included a Pitch Competition, hosted in partnership with Impact Shakers and focused on ClimateTech and InclusionTech innovations, with the winner receiving a €10K investment from the Impact Shakers Microfund. It was an inspiring day of collaboration and innovation, culminating in a networking dinner where new connections and partnerships were forged.

[ Watch the Summit Video here ]

Impact the Future rebrand and the Future Living Festival

2024 marked a new chapter for Impact the Future, with a complete rebrand that better reflects its mission of the adoption of sustainable solutions by harnessing the power of cities, including the second edition of the the Future Living Festival and the launch of a new project: Rethink Cities, an initiative focused on empowering public-private partnerships for net zero solutions.

[ Visit the link impactthefuture.co ]

Rethink Cities Innovation Awards

Part of the Rethink Cities initiative, we also celebrated in November the first edition the Rethink Cities Innovation Awards, an event and ceremony hosted in Sønderborg that supports pioneering net-zero innovations on their growth journey.

The awards connect innovative projects with strategic public and private entities, fostering collaborations that help scale impactful solutions for urbanization and climate challenges. This year’s winners were Insutex, Reel and greenmetrics.io.

[ Visit the link rethinkcities.co]

Partners & Collaborators

Overwhelmed by the support from our incredible partners, this year reaffirmed that tackling complex global issues requires collective efforts. We are grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with numerous outstanding organizations.

The Team

Last but not least, the most crucial highlight of the year is our team. To the incredible individuals worldwide who contribute to making these projects a reality, a heartfelt thank you. Your dedication is the driving force behind our accomplishments, it is your passion that inspires us to continue this journey.

As we look forward to 2025, we’re excited to build on this year’s successes and continue driving innovation and impact. Together with our partners, collaborators and community, we’ll take on new challenges and create lasting solutions.

Here’s to another year of shaping the future, together!