Many small and growing eco-inclusive enterprises and climate-smart infrastructure investment in developing and emerging economies face major financing challenges. How can these financing challenges be addressed and climate-smart innovation be facilitated?

SEED Practitioner Labs Climate Finance tackle this question by bringing practitioners together to jointly prototype tangible solutions to major climate finance challenges and bring these new climate-finance products to market. Florian Rehm, participant from our Practitioner Labs Climate Finance in Thailand, developed the cutting-edge prototype for Last of Ours that merges digital innovation based on the blockchain, social entertainment and real-world impact for our planet’s endangered species and natural zones. Last of Ours, an innovative crowdfunding-like platform,  allows wildlife and nature conservation initiatives to raise awareness and funds for their projects. Users can learn about and donate to the projects through games and other applications.

Impact beyond your wildest dreams

Last of Ours is bringing to life endangered tigers and polar bears right in our hands – on the screens of our mobile phones. Last of Ours is a digital mirror of the latest population estimates of the world’s endangered animals on the blockchain. Every unique Living Animal Social Token (LAST) represents a real endangered animal living in the wild, one-to-one. By connecting social entertainment with a real-world impact, Last of Ours launches a crypto-collective evolution. Users engage in this evolution and create impact solely by participating in social experiences and games for good.

“We believe that collectibles, gaming and charitable giving are some of the most compelling use cases for blockchain technology”, says Florian, the Co-Founder of Last of Ours.

Users can adopt animals from their favourite species at the Last of Ours online sanctuary, purchase magic eggs that hatch their favourite animals and earn tokens representing newborn animals as their population grows out of extinction. Thereby, Last of Ours builds an incentive system to contribute to wildlife and nature conservation. Users can also take a more active role and become a guardian and raise awareness by contributing to organizations that are helping to restore the natural balance. The first version of the platform will be launched in April 2019.

The development and refinement of the Last of Ours prototype was supported by SEED Practitioner Labs Climate Finance which connected Florian with climate finance experts and partners that provided feedback and support during the process.

"Through an open innovation initiative like the SEED Practitioner Labs Climate Finance, we were able to tap into numerous external sources of ideas and knowledge from the world’s leading organizations. True innovation requires many ideas: It’s a zig-zag process of searching outside a company’s walls – and even outside the blockchain area for technologies and solutions to satisfy real market needs” says Florian.

Explore all innovative climate finance products from Thailand, India and Uganda

Florian participated as a product development host in our cycle of Practitioner Labs Climate Finance in Thailand which concluded with the Transition Lab on 29 November in Bangkok. Our first cycle of Practitioner Labs Climate Finance 2018 took place in Thailand, India and Uganda from June to November bringing together around 200 leading investors, banks, development finance institutions, foundations, governments, innovators and intermediaries.

Ten innovative climate finance product prototypes have been developed in the three labs offering a wide range of solutions for climate-smart innovation ranging from a blockchain-based trust for mangrove forests in Thailand, to a Gold Standard Programme of Activities for waste-management start-ups in India to mobile-enabled microinsurance in Uganda. Explore all ten climate finance products and learn more about our Practitioners Labs Climate Finance.

SEED Practitioner Labs Climate Finance are part of the implementation of “Financing and capacity building for micro and small climate-smart enterprises: Filling the gap of the missing middle”, a project supported by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety (BMU) through the International Climate Initiative (IKI).

Do you want to become part of our Practitioner Labs Climate Finance and develop the next generation of climate finance products? Stay tuned for the next cycle of labs coming up in 2019.