Innovate
Energies Roundup
POST SHOW REPORT
Addressing the Climate Crisis: transformative tech, transformative attitudes
Our mission for this year’s Innovate Energies Summit wasn’t complicated. We wanted to connect some of the UK and Europe’s brightest clean tech entrepreneurs with the investment houses and corporations who are focused on developing the innovations that are set to tackle climate change.
In the words of Jonathan Cumming, MD and CFO of Summit Partner, Carbon13,
“Climate change is a business opportunity….
Innovate Energies Cohort 2023
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Aed Energy is unlocking low cost heat to power applications using a novel thermal energy battery design that promising to unlock very low cost long duration energy storage that is critical to accelerate the energy transition. Our innovative thermal storage system is designed to optimise use of low-cost materials combined with our proprietary heat to power technology. Aed Energy’s core technology is a low cost solid state thermal storage system that converts radiant heat to electricity based on the photovoltaic effect.
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We are seeking £1.5m - £2m to develop our proof of concept system pre-design and complete our pilot design works.
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We are a construction and climate tech company with a mission to tackle fuel poverty and climate change through novel, cost effective smart home solutions. We have designed and manufactured the world’s first smart air brick that helps householders and landlords reduce their energy demand whilst managing air quality in homes.
Heating buildings is responsible for 36% of CO2 emissions across Europe, poorly insulated, leaky, energy inefficient buildings require more energy to heat, resulting in higher carbon emissions. Recent research demonstrated that air bricks (air ventilation holes that provide natural airflow) are responsible for up to 15% of the home’s heat loss - this is equivalent to 34,000 GWh/year energy waste in the UK alone! Our solutions can mitigate this unnecessary waste through intelligently controlling airflow.
We are disrupting the building retrofit market by providing a connected homes’ solution with technology that’s simple to install and simple to use.
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Undisclosed.
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Agnes Czako
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Apleum Technologies is a clean technology startup that aims to address climate change by utilising carbon dioxide and producing clean fuels and chemicals. The company is constructing an electrolyser that transforms carbon dioxide into fuels and chemicals with the help of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power.
The combination of electrochemical CO2 conversion and renewable electricity provides a clean way to produce syngas (CO + H2), which can be utilized in existing Fischer-Tropsch processes to manufacture a variety of fuels and chemicals.
Our efforts are centered on energy-efficient and cost-effective CO2 reduction to CO as a key step towards producing sustainable fuels and driving the transition to a zero-emission economy.
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We received pre-seed investment from carbon13, and we are currently exploring government funding options in the UK and the EU.
We are looking for investment in the order of $0.5-1.0 M to build our pilot unit.
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Founded in 2016, BBT designs, manufactures, and develops advanced electric generation, energy recovery and data capture systems based on technology innovation developed by the founders. BBT intends to revolutionise the availability and performance of green electricity for everyone.
The company is built around known scientific and industrial practices from Automotive, Aerospace and Chemical Industries, to develop reliable emission reducing technology and systems.We strive to implement cleaner technology by applying our technological innovation to improving existing industrial systems, and making them fit for the future of the planet.
Through the development of our premier technology, Barton Blakeley has built a network of leading expertise and capabilities with our partners and affiliations that allow rapid innovation, testing and proving for a wide range of industrial applications.
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Undisclosed.
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Christopher Barton
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Bluemethane is developing technology to capture methane from water, as a new source of data, power and revenue.
This will permanently remove methane from water, reduce global warming and support the energy transition by unlocking a new source of bioenergy. We are starting with hydropower plants and wastewater treatment, and will scale to non-hydropower reservoirs, rice cultivation and ultimately, natural bodies of water.
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Seed, raising £2m.
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Louise Parlons Bentata
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Carbon Analytics (Techstars 21) is a granular carbon tracking, intelligence and offsetting platform for industrial decarbonisation. We help companies track and reduce asset-level emissions and carbon footprint using GHG protocols (Scope 1, Scope 2, Scope 3). We focus on granular Scope 3 across the supply chain bringing accuracy and visibility through the value chain.
Climate Change is one of the biggest existential problems we face as a civilisation. Industries have been a prime contributor to this. Today more than ever, businesses need to understand their true carbon footprint with accuracy across the entire value chain. As they are coming under increased pressure to be operationally efficient while remaining ethical and socially responsible from regulatory bodies, consumer preferences & financial markets. To counteract that, industries will face increased carbon costs for the emissions footprint. As carbon pricing is mandated and regulatory requirements come into play, accurate carbon modeling will require a deeper understanding.
Across Industrial GHG emissions, 80% of emissions on average is contributed by indirect Scope 3 across the value chain. This means, in an organisation, the biggest carbon footprint is also the least measured.
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Undisclosed.
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CyanoCapture is a biotech company that began at the University of Oxford. The tech harnesses GM cyanobacteria to make affordable carbon capture a reality for emitting industries globally.
The early-stage startup incorporated in 2021 and is backed by Shell, New Energy Challenge, Elon Musk's XPRIZE and Innovate UK. CyanoCapture's photobioreactor technology challenges the notion that carbon capture is energy intensive and costly. The GM organisms rapidly convert CO2 into fatty acids and sequester this in a solid matter that occupies 1/600th of the volume of CO2 gas. -
Seed Stage £2.5M raising currently with £1.5M committed.
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David Kim
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The electric vehicle infrastructure is rapidly growing, and market dynamics are becoming complex. In this fast-changing landscape making smart investment and operation decisions will depend on automated expert data intelligence. This is what we offer at Evotrack. We create software solutions using specialised learning-based algorithms to predict short-term and long-term EV charging usage and help companies deliver correct deployment and operation strategies for charging supply. We would like to make our future charging infrastructure as cost effective as possible with the least carbon and energy footprint.
The electric vehicle infrastructure is rapidly growing, and market dynamics are becoming complex. In this fast-changing landscape making smart investment and operation decisions will depend on automated expert data intelligence. This is what we offer at Evotrack. We create software solutions using specialized learning-based algorithms to predict short-term and long-term EV charging usage and help companies deliver correct deployment and operation strategies for charging supply. We would like to make our future charging infrastructure as cost effective as possible with the least carbon and energy footprint.
Our core technology is an advanced intelligent forecast engine. This engine tracks and characterises key differentiators such as power networks, urban infrastructure, and external factors like changing weather conditions. It uses machine learning technology to predict upcoming EV charging demand (hours ahead and long-term) down to 'neighbourhood scale'. Our intelligence aims to make the charging infrastructure on the ground as effective as possible while ensuring reliable, resilient, and convenient charging access by drivers. Our service aims to serve charging providers, energy companies and automotive industry. We are the winner of Shell.ai Hackathon in their 2022 EV charging network challenge and secured multiple innovation and R&D grants to commercialise our technology.
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We are currently developing a beta version of our product and will be releasing it by September 2023.
We already have a customer traction (large energy company) and working on an initial contract. We are looking for a seed funding of £450k. -
Dr Oytun Babacan
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• Grid Edge provides commercial buildings with one digital platform (SaaS) to accelerate the journey to net-zero from energy tracking to energy efficiency to flexibility and demand side response.
• Building operators benefit from lower energy costs (average 20%+) and carbon footprint without sacrificing the comfort of their occupants.
• We start our customers’ journey with our Energy Tracker that digitally provides them with half hourly energy consumption data within minutes.
• At every stage our solution involves AI and data driven predictive foresight that enables insights, recommendations and interventions to aid the building operator.
• Proven behind the meter optimization of buildings, solar PV, EV chargers and other dispatchable assets.
• Go-to-market partnerships with bp, Equans, Marubeni and referral partners.
• Currently deploying remote hardware-less deployments in the UK and India driving scalability.
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Our current investors are bp, Noe Group, Centrica, Equans and Aston University. We are now looking to raise our Series B round of funding of £5M. That investment will be used to invest in sales growth, continue to develop our technology stack, and enhance our customer success offering.
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Richard Moore
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Guru Systems creates intelligent technology to make energy systems more transparent, lower cost and lower carbon.
We provide market-leading hardware and data analytics platforms for heat networks, gas boilers and heat pumps. Our technology improves the performance of these systems for residential developers, heat suppliers, customers and our planet.
Moving to low-carbon heat is the biggest challenge in the transition to a net zero emissions future. Our technology helps to accelerate this transition. We capture data, provide analytics and enable remote configuration of the heating systems we monitor. Our technology changes the future of heat for the better.
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Undisclosed.
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Casey Cole
CEO
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Computers get hot and data centres use a huge amount of energy to deal with it. The waste heat from a single data centre could provide enough hot water for 11,000 homes.
But it's hard to move heat and the waste heat from data centres rarely gets re-used. Moving data is easy; heata takes processing to where heat is needed.
Heata is redefining the benchmark in sustainable compute. It distributes its servers within homes, re-using the heat from processing to offset domestic hot water heating, providing free hot water for people who need it. With a shift in focus and a concerted effort, we believe compute can help support the need for heat in society. Heat is useful. Why waste it?
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Looking for 150k to close a 450k seed round (300k already committed, in addition to a 420k Innovate UK grant).
To build our sales capability to gain compute workloads for our installed network with the potential to generate 500k ARR, preparing hardware for scale, plus operations for a 12-18 month runway.
Our goal is to raise a Series A next year.
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Our Mission
Break through the energy barrier to green hydrogen.
Ki in Japanese, or qi (氣) in Chinese means energy and is where the character for hydrogen originates from (氢). Hydrogen is quite literally universal and an abundant source of energy that has been hyped for decades as the answer to a clean, carbon free alternative to our dependency on fossil fuels through splitting water (H2O) into hydrogen and oxygen.
Unfortunately, just to produce enough hydrogen for the current demand would require more solar and wind power than exists worldwide today. Our mission is to have a real tangible impact towards net zero by tackling our existing problem with hydrogen.
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We are aiming to raise £1.5 M to build a modular proof of concept working towards our initial pilot plant.
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Replacing or changing oils used on any oil dependent machinery / rotating equipment is expensive and time consuming. In some industries such as mining, energy and high-volume manufacturing and on particular machinery it can also be dangerous and expensive!
Maximising oil’s working efficiency increases mechanical reliability, reduces servicing procedures to a minimum and saves time and expense.
MasterFilter technology ensures both oil and equipment remain clean and free from:
Environmentally generated contamination such as water
Internal contaminants such as from damaged components
Using MasterFilter technology leads engineering maintenance to a new level and is ideal for companies looking for extended performance results.
There are so many reasons why you will love MasterFilter:
Easy to install both on and off-line
Easy to make servicing a non-shutdown operation
Non spill fast turn-around servicing
Captured debris visible during servicing
No need to waste time doing jobs that are no longer required
Introduces a more efficient workplace maintenance environment
An oil management system that filters oil and preserves equipment
Frees up maintenance funds to use elsewhere
Saves on labour and time
Fast return on outlay
Perfect for preserving ageing machinery with reliability
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Undisclosed.
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Paul Clark
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Naked Energy’s purpose is to change energy for good; for the better and forever. We combine engineering, innovation and sustainability to decarbonise heat and power in the built environment, with the world's highest energy density solar collectors.
Our mission is to supply you with solar thermal and solar PVT evacuated tube collectors; decarbonising demand for heat and power globally, one rooftop, façade, or ground-mounted array at a time.
We drive innovation in the solar thermal and solar PVT sector, integrating our highly efficient technology with monitoring capabilities. Our unique evacuated tube design optimises thermal and electrical outputs in two simple collectors: VirtuHOT (thermal) and VirtuPVT (photovoltaic, thermal).
VirtuHOT and VirtuPVT can provide off-grid solutions, addressing high hot water and electricity demand for hotels, residential developments/ apartments, leisure centres, F&B manufacturing, and hospitals.
Operating globally, we value international collaboration to achieve our vision of a world in which heat and power are no longer dependent on fossil fuels, but driven by renewable technology.
As a team, we are united by our passion for mitigating the climate emergency, blending our efforts to offer a diverse solution to a diverse problem.
Winner of the 2021 CIBSE Building Performance Award, for Product or Innovation in the Thermal Comfort category, our product has been recognised for its potential to support the decarbonisation of heat in the built environment.
VirtuHOT has been tested by TUV Rheinland and certified to both Solar Keymark and SRCC standards.
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Naked Energy will be launching their Series B in late April 2023.
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Open Hydro is the leading platform that automates water greenhouse emissions quantification and allocation, and provides decarbonisation recommendations to reduce these emissions at any given point in the supply chain.
Our software platform provides the most accurate water emissions data aligned with internationally recognised reporting frameworks. It is created from the recognised expertise and reputation of two of Open Hydro’s cofounders in sustainability for the hydropower industry.
Today we are selling to European and North and South American water and hydroelectric utilities and plan that as regulation continues to change to require companies to report their indirect emissions caused by land use changes (and creating a reservoir is a big land use change) we will serve our data via API to the main carbon accounting platforms to those using large quantities of water in their business, and any local and national government and research body looking for further ways to achieve net zero targets.
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We are raising a pre-seed round of £450,000 and have soft commitments from two investors for the round.
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Cristina Diez, CEO
cdiez@openhydro.net
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We combine CO2 from the air with H2 from water and renewable electricity to make fuels, chemicals and biodegradable plastics.
Carbon is an incredibly useful element, especially when used in hydrocarbons. Our mission is to give future generations the acknowledged benefits of hydrocarbons but without their negative climate impact.
Even with the growth of renewable energy, fossil fuels still provided 83% of the 557 EJ of primary energy the world needed in 2020. To limit the impact of greenhouse gas emissions, this demand, plus the anticipated additional growth, must all come from zero - emissions sources in just 30 years. The shift in the power sector is of course already underway however, not all sectors are easy-to-decarbonise using renewable electricity directly, in particular, long-distance aviation transport fuels where energy density requirements are far beyond batteries and petrochemicals where the carbon molecules themselves become the multitude of products we use in our everyday lives.
In these sectors e-fuels, e-chemicals and e-plastics made from green electricity and CO2 will be essential to displace the fossil oil and gas in use today.
OxCCU is developing inexpensive catalysts with high efficiency and selectivity, transforming CO2 into valuable hydrocarbons.
Welcome to the future of truly circular e- fuels, sustainable chemicals and biodegradable plastics. One where people can fly, use household chemicals and buy disposable and biodegradable plastic products without concerns about their impact on climate change or waste disposal.
The company was spun out from the University of Oxford in 2021 by OUI and IP Group and is underpinned by a number of scientific breakthroughs published in top tier scientific journals by Professor Peter Edwards, Dr Tiancun Xiao and Dr Benzhen Yao.
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Undisclosed.
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Sennen was established to drive transformation and value in the renewables industry. We have created our own lightning fast, cloud technology for leaders
in renewables who are seeking to put data and automation at the heart of their strategy.
Our technology has two primary functions. For offshore wind farm operators, our sophisticated modular solution is designed to manage marine coordination,
work management and health and safety control through a single integrated platform.
For infrastructure funds, our software enables asset managers to streamline reporting, improve data quality and manage risk and compliance.
Our mission is to empower clients to have a clear line of sight across all of their data and make sound operational decisions, ensuring safety while also maximising output and minimising downtime.
Sennen’s software is now deployed across more than 10GW of wind, solar and hydro anaerobic digestion and biomass. Clients include RWE, EDF Renewables and Foresight Group.
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Sennen is currently funding for an pre-series A round of £2.5M+
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Alexandra Allen
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Solivus are on a mission to simplify the decarbonisation of the built environment with lightweight solar so more businesses and homeowners reduce their climate impact, have more energy security and reduce energy bills.
Solivus are pioneers in lightweight solar tech solutions with solar that is 10x lighter than conventional panels. We open up new markets only made possible with an alternative to conventional solar.
40% of commercial buildings have roofs that cannot use conventional solar panels due to weight or fixing issues. Solivus are turning vast unused commercial roof spaces into the solar farms of the future.
For homeowners looking to reduce their reliance on the grid and take charge of their energy bills without compromising the look of their home, Solivus have designed the Solivus Arc - a super green, ground-mounted solar sculpture.
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We will be running our Series A fundraise this year but prior to that looking for a top up (up to £1M), which will be EIS eligible.
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Agrivoltaics allow the dual use of land for agriculture and solar energy generation.
Our decision-making software uses the latest research to provide data on solar energy generation, crop yield, water stress and climate impact over the 25-30 year life of the project.
Informed decisions help to derisk investments and maximise returns resulting in improved food security, an acceleration to renewable energy and the decarbonisation of the agricultural sector.
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Undisclosed.
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Nathan Kiner
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Unbound Energy is accelerating the uptake of rooftop solar by removing 3 key obstacles, namely CAPEX, complexity and return-on-tenure. Unbound Energy owns rooftop solar assets for their life and sells the cleaner and cheaper energy to off takers on a more flexible basis than is currently available. We believe that this flexibility will unlock a large and previously un-serviced part of the market. Our solution is highly scaleable and can accelerate the transition to a cleaner energy system.
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We are looking to do a £2 million seed round in September 2023
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Simon Padbury
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tepeo’s Zero Emission Boiler (ZEB®), is a smart, low carbon, heating product for homes. This plug-n-play replacement for an existing fossil fuel boiler provides the same performance but without the associated emissions. The ZEB is powered by electricity which heats up a thermal core. This stores heat energy efficiently until it is needed and releases it when the thermostat calls for heat (either for heating or hot water). This thermal storage capacity means that electricity can be drawn from the grid during times of low cost and carbon intensity.
The ZEB’s creates a machine learning based prediction of the home’s heating needs when calculating its charging schedule to maximise the use of low-cost, green energy. Consumers keep their existing controls, pipework, radiators and cylinders, making the ZEB a very simple installation compared to many other low carbon options. The current ZEB model works well in homes with an ideal heat demand of up to 12,000kWhs, typically a three bedroom semi-detached house. Decoupling heating consumption from electricity demand like the ZEB can will help drive rapid decarbonisation of domestic heating through electrification while supporting the higher renewable penetration in electricity production through Demand Side Response and flexibility. -
Funding requirements: We closed a £10.5m Series A fundraise in December 2022 therefore we are not currently looking for funding.
We expect to start a Series B raise in 2024.
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We Do Solar is a smart solar set for your balcony which serves as a privacy screen. The product is fully designed for non tech-savvy users and is easy in self-installation and works from a simple power plug. The system is also equipped with a companion app which tracks live energy production and CO2 reduction.
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Currently raising a round of 2M.
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Karolina Attspodina
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ZOEX is the world’s first commercially viable, deployable and reliable wave energy capture system. Delivering success in a sector that had lost its way Mayfair Energy Advisory is seeking investment to bring ZOEX to the market and in doing so deliver a paradigm shift in renewable energy supply that will transform our lives forever.
The ZOEX clean energy device is a very special product. It is the culmination of a strategic development plan that transcends both the technical and commercial aspects of the genre.
By simultaneously aligning an extraordinary USP, competitive advantage and captive market the perennial dark clouds of commercial wave power failure have lifted and finally we can make waves work.
ZOEX design has been relentlessly honed to match the needs of marine based auxiliary scale power applications and will debut in the nascent but rapidly expanding Aquaculture sector where diesel has had its day and green energy is the future.
This novel entry point represents a fundamental shift in direction for wave power and will be the launchpad for this renewable energy game changer.
With all the above elements in place the growth opportunities are extraordinary and the investment rewards correspondingly eye watering.
We are delighted to have the opportunity to showcase this prospectus and welcome you to the world of ZOEX; Reliable, Cost-Effective and Clean Auxiliary Power for the Blue Economy.
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Phase 1 commercialisation of the ZOEX wind energy capture device will require an initial investment of circa 6 Million Pounds.
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Wave Power – An Erroneous Reputation
Addressing the Climate Crisis: transformative tech, transformative attitudes
SUMMIT WRITE-UP
20 innovators
10 investors
5 industry experts
1 incredible day
Our mission for this year’s Innovate Energies Summit wasn’t complicated. We wanted to connect some of the UK and Europe’s brightest cleantech entrepreneurs with the investment houses and corporations who are focused on developing the innovations that are set to tackle climate change.
In the words of Jonathan Cumming, MD and CFO of Summit Partner, Carbon13, “Climate change is a business opportunity. Everything we do needs to be reinvented and make a positive impact.”
No mean feat, and how does the Innovate Energies Summit contribute to that huge challenge?
Our programme presented four “by invitation” innovator pitch sessions, each moderated by an investor or cleantech energy expert. We punctuated these with inspiring sessions from those who have experienced the road to commercialisation and those who have already invested millions in the development of some truly transformative technology.
What Did We Talk About?
The technology discussed ranged from solar and green hydrogen to offshore wind and hydropower, but there were two key topics that many of our innovators focused on – domestic and industrial heat, and the means of measurable energy consumption.
Unanimously agreed within the room, one of the key answers to climate change will be the decarbonised approach to heat generation, together with the habits of consumers and industry when it comes to monitoring usage of power. The latter topic kicked off the Summit, with keynote speaker, Dan Williams, who shared his entrepreneurial journey so far, and measureable.energy’s goal to eliminate the wasted energy and emissions from commercial buildings, which currently account for 20% of energy consumption.
The Investor Session
Hearing from the other side of the coin, the Investor session made clear that whilst it’s pretty critical – money isn’t everything. Without the broader strategy around sourcing partnership models, how to encourage first adopters, how to manage the uncertain demand for decarbonising clean technology and how to scale up in a way which makes financial sense – these are the additional benefits an investor should be bringing to the table.
Asked if the current UK financial crisis would impact upon funding and investment, the answer was a resounding “no”. The audience was assured that the key driver to globally decarbonise will remain fundamental in the long-term – outliving any financial peaks and troughs.
The Role of Academia and Research
Reflecting recent headlines around the launch of Cleantech UK - a £6bn+ coalition focused upon opening the door to a new generation of clean tech start-ups – we heard from Alyssa Gilbert, founding member of Cleantech UK and Director of Undaunted at Imperial College London.
She brought considerable food for thought to the table, discussing the urgent need to innovate around the current impacts of climate change – not just those of the future, and not just those of the western world. Affordability will be key in global deployment. Referencing the fast-tracked development of a COVID-19 vaccination, Alyssa underlined that it is possible to make things happen quickly – and that’s what’s required to answer this global crisis.
Transformative Behaviour
Whether focused upon domestic or industrial energy consumption, each of our innovators, investors and experts was clear on one central point – a shift in consumer behaviour is critical to any effective decarbonisation strategy. Whether that’s the constant measurement of energy consumption, or the installation of alternative heating and energy generators, how the human race reacts to cleantech innovation plays a critical role in addressing the climate crisis.
Deepak Ravindran of Octopus Energy took us right to the coal face of consumer interaction, sharing his experiences in the role customer service plays in encouraging consumers to begin their cleantech journey – whether that’s through innovative EV charging payment methods or access to renewable energy via Octopus’ ownership of one of the largest portfolios of solar and battery wind farms.
Whilst so much cleantech innovation must, by necessity, take the long-term view Deepak reminded us that when it comes to changing consumer behaviour, short-term objectives may be the most impactful.
The Cumulative Effect
In just a few hours, the Innovate Energies Summit presented 20 unique companies, all seeking investment and all with very clear metrics when it comes to the impact their technology will have on carbon emission reduction. From solar, wind, wave and hydrogen to grid tech, software and hardware, these companies will - in their own sphere – contribute to improving the lives of millions of people across the globe.
Answering the climate crisis question is about investment, of course, but it’s also about collaboration, adoption and a sea change in how each and every one of us approaches energy consumption.
We look forward to seeing the developments at Innovate Energies Summit 2024! Reach out to the Frontier team to partner with our 2024 edition.