Member Article

Shell Springboard announces regional winners at Aberdeen heat

• Three businesses receive £40,000 equity-free funding each and progress to the Shell Springboard 2017 national final in London in April.
• The Shell Springboard programme offers awards of up to £150,000 to businesses with innovative, commercially viable ideas that support the transition to a lower carbon economy.

Nova Innovations (Edinburgh), Perpetual V2G Systems Ltd (Ceredigion) and Upside Energy Ltd (Cheshire) were last night named Shell Springboard regional winners at an awards ceremony in Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre (AECC).

Nova Energy designs, builds, installs, commissions and operates tidal energy projects. Perpetual V2G Systems has developed a Lithium-based technology which provides a zero-carbon, zero noise mobile power solution, while Upside Energy’s cloud-based energy aggregation service creates a Virtual Energy Store that can be sold to the grid to help balance supply and demand. Each receives £40,000 equity-free funding from the Shell Springboard programme.

They will now go head-to-head with three other regional winners from Cambridge in the national Shell Springboard 2017 final in London on April 6. The overall national winner will receive a further £110,000, taking their total equity-free funding to £150,000.

Shell Springboard provides funding and other support to help innovative, low-carbon business scale-up. Now in its twelfth year, the programme has awarded £3,850,000 million to 92 low-carbon enterprises, creating over 60 new jobs with combined annual turnover of almost £5.6 million. The important role of entrepreneurs in shaping our low carbon future and the UK economy was highlighted in the Government’s recently published Industrial Strategy green paper.

Previous Shell Springboard winners have benefitted from a range of support beyond grant funding. This included feedback from experts on business plans; support in identifying the right funding routes through the Shell Access to Finance Navigator; marketing and publicity exposure through participation in the Shell Make the Future Live festival; and scale-up support through Shell’s #makethefuture campaign.

With the support of Shell #makethefuture, previous Shell Springboard winner Deciwatt launched its award-winning technology, GravityLight, in Kenya last autumn. GravityLight uses the force of gravity to power lights as an alternative to other fuel sources including kerosene lamps. Through a 50-night tour of communities in Kenya, where almost 80 per cent of the population live with no access to electricity, Shell and the GravityLight Foundation brought more than 3,000 of the innovative lighting devices to people living off-grid.

Host of the Aberdeen event, Angus Gillespie, Vice President for CO2 at Shell, said:

“Shell Springboard judges have chosen three fantastic companies with innovations that are not simply interesting, but have potential to deliver genuine impact in reducing carbon emissions. Out of 130 applicants they stood out as great examples of entrepreneurial companies setting the pace in the UK’s low carbon sector. We are proud to be helping smart companies like these to grow and, through them, supporting the development of the UK’s low carbon sector. I look forward to seeing more from Nova Innovations, Perpetual V2G Systems and Upside Energy and wish them the best of luck for the national final.“

Simon Forrest, CEO of Nova Innovations, said:

“The Nova team are delighted to receive this honour from Shell! The Shell Springboard award will enable us to reach and accelerate growth in new international markets.“

Andy Ling, CEO and Founder of Perpetual V2G Systems, said:

“To be recognised by such an established energy brand as Shell Springboard reinforces our disruptive innovation and provides a massive credibility boost to the team!“

Graham Oakes, Founder and CEO of Upside Energy, said:

“This is fantastic news! Shell Springboard is great recognition for the team’s hard work and inspiration over the last two years. We’re building a great company that will help pass on a better world to future generations, and Shell Springboard will help us along the way.“

For more information about Shell Springboard and how to apply for future funding, please visit: http://www.shellspringboard.org/

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Shell Springboard .