This is arguably the most exciting Open Innovation Program for the Energy industry in the world. Free Electrons, now in its third edition, has conquered the reputation of contributing to significant advancements in the Energy industry and boosting the growth of the startups that participate in this global program.
Make no mistake, Free Electrons has been designed for greatness from the start. Three years ago, eight energy utilities from all over the globe (AusNet Services, DEWA, EDP, ESB, innogy, Origin Energy, SP Group and Tokyo Electric Power Company) joined forces in a consortium built to push the boundaries of the energy sector, in order to find better and more sustainable solutions. Last year, American Electric Power and CLP have joined the gang, and are now part of the mighty 10 brave utilities.
The track record is unparalleled, both by the innovation injected in the utilities and by the growth achieved by the startups that become part of the big Free Electrons family.
So it comes with no surprise that the third edition, that wrapped up its third module last week, is already set to break some very high Free Electrons standards.
During this last module, startups and utilities had the chance to present the first pilots, after the match that took place in Module 1, with an impressive 27 pilots announced. Startups solutions are now being applied to utilities business challenges.
While on the second module of the program, Utilities and Startups also, based on the progress made on the first pilots, kicked off the development of new pilots and moved towards potential commercial agreements and/or investment contracts. Seven new pilots were announced by the end of Module 2, making the total of ongoing pilots of Free Electrons a mind blowing 41.
Free Electrons Utilities and Startups will now continue to work on their remarkable solutions that will be presented in an open day in Lisbon, on September 19 at Academia das Ciências. Hope you can join us there!
Bluetech Accelerator – Ports and Shipping 4.0 just wrapped-up its Bootcamp phase. Bluetech is an ambitious and innovative program looking to create a new batch of ocean startups and attracted startups from all over the world.
The Bootcamp
The Bootcamp, that occurred from 24th to 28th, is an intensive work week where startups and met for the first time with the partners.
The week started with a speech from Ana Paula Vitorino, the portuguese Ministry of the Sea, who inspired the entrepreneurs with the government’s vision of developing a new blue economy, that both uses ocean resources and protects its biodiversity and sustainability.
After the first introductions, the startups received guidance from Beta-i’s team on how to build pilots in collaboration with the partners and spent their time meeting one-on-one with the partners.
This is an essential moment, where startups can dive into the partner’s business and discuss to find common goals and operations.
The Pilots Moving Forward
Of the 21 startups that joined the pilot, 15 have been chosen to move on to the pilot phase. They will be developing 23 pilots in partnership with the Bluetech Pioneers.
APDL, who administers the ports in the north of Portugal will be leading in the number of pilots – having 7 pilots being developed with several startups, followed by APS (ports in the south), with 5 pilots. These numbers clearly reflect the vertical being developed in this first edition – Ports and Shipping.
Smart Open Lisboa (SOL), an open-innovation program connecting some of the most relevant players in the residential and commercial real estate sector with startups to implement innovative solutions in the city of Lisbon, had the Demo Day for its Housing vertical, today at Museu da Água.
The 14 startups selected for this phase in the program worked on 25 pilots in partnership with the big corporations involved in the program, that ranged from real estate companies to construction companies and to utilities.
An on-going process
After an intense Bootcamp, where startups and partners met for the first time and worked on collaborative pilots, the Demo Day showcased the work that partners and startups have been developing for the last two months and the first results of these collaborative pilots.
The different rhythms of these two types of companies and the matching of technology and processes make the experimentation become a journey – these are just the first results and plans, from which the teams can learn to keep perfecting the projects in the months to come.
Solutions for real estate
The projects presented by the startups varied in range and style within the real estate and housing sectors: from testing the predictive maintenance of water leaks to the logistics and management processes associated with the food-court of commercial spaces. But they all added new layers into the partners’ businesses, for example:
Heptasense is working on identifying behaviors via surveillance cameras already installed in commercial spaces. Using Heptasense’s solution, it is possible to identify behaviors (without comprising the anonymity) of the users of the space. In this way, it’s possible for commercial spaces to identify theft in real time, and also qualify the spaces they offer and give them fair value.
Howz is working with social assistance from the Municipality to use their sensors in the homes of the assisted elderly population. The sensors examine behavior through electricity use, analyze patterns and notify the system in case of abnormalities. The system will allow for faster assistance in case of need, and the reduction of unnecessary emergency calls.
OneGrid, Meazon and Enerbrain are experimenting with partners in ways to measure consumption and identify over-consumption to take action and reduce costs in building management.
What all the projects have in common is that they all contribute to reducing inefficiency, making decisions based on accurate data and shift these companies to a more proactive way of managing.
Lisbon Investment Summit happened over two weeks ago now, but for us, it is still going: through all the things that we learned, the moments we treasured and the relationships we started.
It’s all about community
The most important thing we learned at #LIS19 is something that we at Beta-i have always believed: it’s all about community. Innovation is only possible when different stakeholders join forces together and collaborate to thrive – and #LIS19 is the perfect melting pot that joins entrepreneurs, corporate innovators, investors and decision makers in one place.
The highlights:
Humanity Will Fix the Future
Andrew Keen, the best-selling author of How To Fix the Future and the headliner at #LIS19, spoke about the unfulfilled promises of technology – the promise that it would bring equality, boost democracy and create bridges between people. To overcome these challenges, we must take action through regulation, innovation and citizen engagement. The “fixing” of the future does not rest on more technology – it rests solely on our shoulders.
Investment in Portugal
Pedro Falcão, Managing Partner of LC Ventures, gave #LIS19 attendees an overview of the investment landscape in Portugal. You can download the report here:
Lisbon Investment Summit would not be the same without our amazing pitch competition, sponsored by GROW, which was one of the highlights of these two days – 12 amazing startups pitched on stage but there can only be one winner. The prize went to Musiversal, represented by founder André Miranda (and a Lisbon Challenge alumnus).
For 10 weeks, the teams went through an intense program, filled with enriching content, workshops and mentoring sessions. The program is structured in four phases:
Validation: The founders started by validating their value proposition and gaining a better understanding of what could be their target audience and their potential needs.
Product And Tech: This phase meant a deep-dive into the startups’ solutions and the technology behind them, defining how is their project solving the clients’ needs better than any other out there, and designing a roadmap for product market fit.
Growth: At this third phase, founders learned how to talk with customers and make sure they don’t leave after trying the product – in other words, it was all about client retention and which metrics should be analyzed in order to figure it out.
Investment: The teams learned to understand investors, and what they are looking for. But also, what to say to investors to tell their story and secure investment.
People-centric approach
The value proposition brought by Lisbon Challenge it’s its unique people-centric approach – a Beta-i landmark.
This approach is about bringing a people-centered vision to the founders’ businesses, keeping in mind: Who are they building a solution for (getting to know their consumer), who are they building a solution with (building a team and company culture) and who they are as entrepreneurs (preparing founders’ for the future ahead).
Mentor-driven program
The Lisbon Challenge journey, taking them closer and closer to a product-market fit, is only possible thanks to the strong network of mentors, who have been through the same processes and similar experiences as entrepreneurs themselves.
Our 88 mentors, from different specialties – from branding and product to growth, from personal development to investment, have clocked in over 450+ hours of mentorship, giving the founders’ the tools they need to succeed.
The big stage at #LIS
The journey led the founders to the biggest stage in the investment arena: Lisbon Investment Summit – to an audience on national and international investors and innovators, in an event with over 1500 attendees.
Originating from very different countries – this international cohort had startups from Portugal, UK, Italy, Ireland and USA – they took to the stage: OUTBOUND, VAIRT, FLOCK, CROWDBOOKS and SKOACH were the startups pitching.
The crowd had a say – they gave feedback live, through a form vote – and it was positive: over 50% of voters said that they wanted to meet and talk with the founders.
It’s only the beginning
For our founders, this is just the beginning – they are now ready to jump to the next stage: scaling. In the words of the team: “We’re really proud of what we saw today. And today is just the beginning for these teams. They are already doing pilots with big corporates – all companies looking for innovative solutions should talk with these startups. They are a group of trusting, capable founders, with impactful solutions and a growth mindset. We’re excited to see the global impact they will bring in the future – we know they are ready to jump into scale.”
The Demo Day for the third edition of Smart Open Lisboa (SOL), an open-innovation program connecting some of the most relevant players in the residential and commercial real estate sector with startups to implement innovative solutions in the city of Lisbon, is fast approaching – join us next Thursday, June 27th, at Museu d Água to see the solutions presented.
What to Expect
For this second vertical of Smart Open Lisboa, focused on the residential and commercial real estate sector, a total of 19 startups were present at the Bootcamp, with several going forward for the pilot phase – there are a total of 27 pilots being developed.
A preview of the pilots
As the startups’ technologies can get applied to a multitude of businesses, they have joined the partners to test these solutions in the partners’ businesses, proving its effectiveness in bettering the lives oh thousand of people in Lisbon.
Here are a few examples of the technologies applied in the pilots, whose results will be presented by the startups and partners:
Alfredo AI
Alfredo’s machine learning algorithms will help a bank evaluate residential properties (without sharing any data with Alfredo) generating new credit leads and mitigating risk through an intelligent internal portfolio analysis. In this edition of SOL Housing, they tested it against the traditional way banks evaluate apartments and houses.
Nudge Portugal
Nudge Portugal developed a pilot to intervene in a commercial space’s food court to: increase the return of food trays, the screening of garbage for recycling in the food court as well as to avoid perpendicular queuing and corresponding blocking of corridors.
Meazon
Meazon worked with the partners on the installation of energy submeters in a building to monitor the elevators and allow a faster service and predictive maintenance through analytics and alerts based on the customer needs using the power consumption or production data.
Howz
This startup developed a system to measure electricity use and other data in the homes of older people, identifying events that describe the activity and building routine patterns. Then, they look for anomalies and send status alerts to families.
MycroftMind
This startup developed software of predictive maintenance of water leakages or bursts in a determined neighborhood, by a collection of data with sensor networks and machine learning algorithms.
