Fundación Repsol has presented the seven startups selected in the tenth call of its business accelerator, the Entrepreneurs Fund, and which have been chosen after an exhaustive evaluation and selection process among the 713 proposals received from 20 countries.
The selected projects will receive financial support of up to 120,000 euros for one year, as well as the advice of Repsol technical experts and a team of professional mentors with extensive experience and knowledge of both the energy sector and business management. In addition, they will have the possibility of validating new technologies in a real environment, through pilot tests at the company’s own facilities and industrial plants or concept tests at the Repsol Technology Lab, the company’s research center.
In the presentation event of the selected startups, the President of Repsol, Antonio Brufau; and Patrima Rangarajan, CEO of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiave (OGCI) – Climate Investments.
Antonio Brufau highlighted the great challenge facing society to move towards a more decarbonized world, while reiterating Repsol’s commitment to the energy transition and the objectives of the Paris Agreement. To face this enormous challenge, as global as it is complex – he said – “it is critical to bet on technology and innovation, digitization and talent”. “And betting on talent means objectively supporting small companies and innovative startups like the ones we are supporting today from the Fundación Repsol Entrepreneurs Fund,” he said.
“At Repsol we are in a process of strategic transformation, placing great emphasis on energy efficiency, the circular economy in industrial processes, new fuels and low-emission fuels, renewable energies, hydrogen and the capture of CO2,” he said. appointed by the President of Repsol.
In his speech, Patrima Rangarajan, focused on the need to accelerate the transition process to a low-carbon future and the crucial role that entrepreneurial ecosystems play in driving innovation in the energy industry. The OGCI has launched highly relevant sector initiatives.
Selected startups
The tenth edition of the Entrepreneurs Fund has generated great interest at the international level and more than 700 applications have been received from 20 countries, which have stood out for the quality of the proposals in the different areas of the call, especially those focused on the reduction of emissions, through carbon capture, use and storage technologies (CCUS), the production and use of hydrogen and eco-fuels, as well as the application of digitization and artificial intelligence to improve the efficiency of the industry .
The seven companies that will be accelerated by the Entrepreneurs Fund from September are the following:
- Alchemr (United States): production of renewable hydrogen from low-cost electrolysis processes.
- Beautifuel (Slovenia): production of renewable energy from waste and residues.
- Industrial Analytics (Germany): artificial intelligence applied to the maintenance of industrial equipment.
- Mission Zero (UK): technologies for direct capture of CO2 from the air.
- Nulife (Canada): catalysts for the production of renewable fuels.
- Qualifying Photovoltaics (Spain): digital platform based on big data and algorithms for the management and optimization of photovoltaic assets.
- Trovant (Spain): biogas to biomethane conversion technology. Ten years driving the future of energy.
Fundación Repsol has been supporting entrepreneurship focused on new technologies for the world of energy for a decade and has become a recognized and effective initiative to promote the development of the most innovative solutions, thus helping to accelerate the energy transition.
Since its launch in 2011, the Entrepreneurs Fund has contributed to the development of 67 innovative startups in fields related to low-carbon technologies, circular economy, sustainable mobility or digitization for the optimization and control of energy industry processes.
Over these ten years, the companies accelerated by Fundación Repsol have developed more than 820 prototypes, have registered nearly 200 patents and have obtained more than 175 million euros in public and private funding.
In the tenth call launched in January of this year, 713 proposals were received, mainly from Spain, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and the Netherlands
