Digital transformation is taking over a large spectrum of industries, with the integration of digital technology into all areas of business, fundamentally changing how companies operate and deliver value to customers.
In the vanguard of this transformation is Free Electrons, the first global energy accelerator. Applications results reinforce Free Electrons positioning as the world-leading innovation platform for energy-related startups, the current edition had 481 applications, with 90% new entries.
Manuel Tânger, Co-founder and Head of Open-Innovation at Beta-i
We spoke with Manuel Tânger, Head of Open-Innovation at Beta-i, about how Free Electrons incorporates innovation methodologies to bring innovation to the sector.
What are the main innovation methodologies Beta-i is bringing to Free Electrons’ innovation framework?
Free Electrons is a program focused on creating the best conditions for the most innovative utilities to work with startups in order to innovate. This sounds easy, but it’s quite hard. To facilitate this, we focus very heavily on making pilots happening as a way to test profusely and ultimately get to the coveted deals between utilities and startups. Experimentation is, I would say, the core methodological concept of Free Electrons. But to do this, these pilots need to be thought up, designed, implemented and followed-up on. We, as Beta-i, have to create the moments and the mindset needed for both utilities and startups to think creatively on how they may work together and maybe do something that no one has ever done before. In particular, we use a “pilot canvas” that helps startups map out possible pilots to then be analyzed, discussed and fine-tuned with the utilities.
How do you build a framework that adds value to both startups and utilities?
When interests are fully aligned, then naturally what is good for startups is good for utilities. Utilities want to innovate and bring to market the best and newest offer possible, which generally involves new technology and business models. On the other hand, startups want a large audience to their niche product/service to be able to scale and improve their high performing product even more. Free Electrons makes this possible by design.
What are the key elements/moments in it?
It’s a long process from the partners’ needs assessment to the demo day, but one of the critical moments is the Bootcamp – which is happening right now in Dublin. It’s where startups and partners’ meet for the first time and try to look at the future together – and then pilot a solution for this future. It all happens in one intense week, and it has to work from then onwards.
By putting into contact these startups and quickening the speed of their scaling through collaboration with large global utilities, Free Electrons is, without question, accelerating this transformation with great benefit to all!
How do you think Free Electrons is helping re-shaping the energy sector worldwide?
The energy sector is going through a massive transformation with the consolidation and application of new technology. It is now cheaper to produce energy by solar than any other mean. Batteries are almost at a price point to make it competitive to store in the production luls at scale. Micro-production is now turning users into producers and contributors to the network. Electric vehicles are huge now and upcoming energy consumer but also batteries to be used as network balancing. Smart meters are gathering very fine-tuned user data that is propelling the appearance of new business models due to the data. This same data helps utilities and users maximize energy usage while minimizing the cost and also allows utilities to reach out to new spaces that go beyond energy and into services. These are a few of the highlights of the tectonic shift happening right now in the energy market. And startups are working on all of them! With the focus and zeal characteristic of modern tech entrepreneurs. By putting into contact these startups and quickening the speed of their scaling through collaboration with large global utilities, Free Electrons is, without question, accelerating this transformation with great benefit to all! To us, normal energy consumers, to startups that scale to grown-ups and utilities that capitalize on being first to embrace this change.
The Payment Services Directive 2 – PSD2 – is set to be fully implemented until the end of 2019, as banks must comply with all the regulations of the directive by September.
Although the impact cannot be measured as off now, we can see some of the changes happening already as bigger players are already taking notice of the impact the directive might have on the financial market: global fintech investment has doubled to €43 billion in 2018.
The goals of the directive
The professed goals of the directive include boosting a single market of payments for the UE, the reinforcement of safety, through the use of consumer authentication methods which comply with European standards and the accountability of payment service providers in the event of unauthorized payment transactions, more competition and innovation, by opening up the market to non-banks and innovative fintechs, and a more convenient experience for the customers, as a more consumer-centric view of the market, will be emerging.
The Shift in the Market
There will be several factors reinforcing the directive in creating a unified European Market:
Bigger market: as the market shifts from several autonomous markets into a single bigger one, it will become more attractive to new players and new services.
Scaling up: It will be cheaper for banks and other services to scale and operate in several countries when their legal frameworks are homogeneous which reduces development and compliance costs.
Savvy consumers: As the competition in the European market increases, so will the transparency in financial services and prices offered by European banks, which will lead to better-informed consumers, that will lead to considering foreign banks.
Consumers are increasingly more open to online and international shopping. This behavior can influence consumers’ banking behaviors as well.
In a nutshell, the European financial markets will change from domestic banks (the current status quo) into an open and European market, where European and international banks and non-banks will be able to offer their services.
Read more about the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) here.
Bluetech accelerator aims to connect the most innovative tech and ocean startups with leading players in the industry to create a new blue economy – one that is modern, data-based, technologically advanced and environmentally friendly.
Behind the program are 6 Bluetech pioneers – companies that are leaders in the market and are ready to partner up with startups to pilot groundbreaking solutions.
APDL
The Port of Leixões is the largest port infrastructure in Northern Portugal and one of the most important in the country, equipped with modern facilities and advanced ship management systems.
Why Bluetech?
There’s a focus on improving not only the performance of the physical port but also of the digital port. Bluetech is an opportunity to expand on the concept of port tech clusters, which can contribute to the development of their port and maritime services.
APS
The Port de Sines is the leading national port in volumes of cargo handled and is also the leading container port in the country. They have an history of over 20 years and were pioneers in the Information Systems development in Europe.
Why Bluetech?
APS believes they are in the service of the economy – Bluetech accelerator is an opportunity to develop and implement technology that will help them be more efficient in reaching this goal.
Grupo E.T.E.
Since 1936, ETE Group is the national leader in developing competitive services for the port, maritime and inland water transportation sectors. Very transversal in the sector, ETE group acts in several areas: port operations, maritime and fluvial transportation, logistics, naval engineering, naval construction, and maintenance. They have a experienced path in the field and are present in 3 different continents.
Why Bluetech?
ETE Group has innovation in its DNA. Their longtime success is based on having always believed in innovation, technology and being open to always renewing themselves, investing in new knowledge and new companies in order to become more sustainable, productive and efficient and able to provide the best service to their clients.
Portline Ocean Management
Portline Ocean was created in 2016 to operate in the complex market of shipping high-value cargo. With a deep focus on the international market, Portline Ocean has developed remarkable expertise in the transport of dry bulks and containers, together with all the related shipping activities.
Why Bluetech?
Portline Ocean aims to be in the vanguard to give the best to its clients. They are irreverent in the way approach the market and maritime shipping business, so sharing knowledge and developing solutions with like-minded startups is a not-to-miss opportunity.
Inmarsat
Inmarsat is the pioneer and world leader in mobile satellite communications, powering global connectivity for nearly four decades.
They provide governments, commercial enterprises, and humanitarian organizations with mission-critical voice and high-speed data communications on land, at sea, and in the air.
Why Bluetech?
Because it’s around ports, Bluetech represents the joining of two of Inmarsat’s business units, land and maritime, in the incredibly important hub that is a maritime port. They are ready to join Inmarsat’s capabilities in these two areas, and with their digital incubation team, and program partners, together to innovate and create new solutions to help digitalize the maritime industry.
Tekever
Tekever develops advanced technology and products in areas such as the digital economy, aerial vehicles, and space industries, always with a mindset of Continuous Innovation.
Why Bluetech?
Tekever’s business is intimately linked to the sea, especially where it concerns drones and space. In both cases, they’re building infrastructure that allows for new services in the maritime area – in safety, infrastructure compliance, etc – so it makes sense for them to part of this initiative, and make this structures available for startups innovating with them.
Free Electrons, the first energy global accelerator is ready to kick off its Bootcamp phase. In total, the program received 481 applications, from 62 different countries, a ‘spread’ that talks volumes about the international reach of the program.
The program only had a 10% repeat rate, and that means 90% of the startups we attracted are new entries, and that talks to the global visibility of the program, and its growing appeal.
The bootcamp
The bootcamp, held in Dublin (Ireland) from 2nd to 4th, will be critical for the success of the program, since this is when utilities and startups meet for the first time, to discuss the challenges and what the solutions to meet those challenges will look like.
This is also when the terms for the pilots are first set, and this will pretty much define the final quality of the pilots and the program as a whole.
The selected startups
These are the innovators that will be flying to Dublin to meet the 10 Free Electrons’ partners and join the Bootcamp activities (click the tab to get to know them better):
Akselos SA
Akselos, armed with the most advanced engineering simulation technology developed at MIT, has brought forward a means to use data to protect the world’s critical infrastructure by bringing top predictive power to digital twins.
AmbiClimate is the world’s first AI powered accessory for air conditioners. The proprietary artificial intelligence engines control the air conditioner/heat pump based on not just temperature alone, but also other key factors such as humidity and changing weather.
Anyware Solutions helps Energy Utilities, Insurance companies and Telcos to create effective Customer Engagement and new revenue streams, through targeted and personalized customer interaction and cross-selling of Smart Living Services.
Breezi is a new kind of home security company. They build connected devices and software that work like fitness trackers for some of the most expensive equipment in the modern home.
Chargetrip’s routing algorithms and intuitive trip planner make it easy to take any electric car beyond the range of the battery or use EV’s commercially with high intensity.
DEXMA is a top energy management solution provider in Europe, with several years of demonstrated capacity to innovate in a highly competitive global market.
Energyworx offers an Intelligent Meter Data Management SaaS solution. It’s the only cloud native MDM. Energyworx helps Energy and Utility companies monetize their rapidly growing volumes of diverse data.
Enging allows to monitor electrical motors and power transformers, even the ones that do not allow easy access, through an intelligent asset condition monitoring platform – ePreditMntc -, based on the latest IoT technologies related to Industry 4.0.
ev.energy is an electric vehicle (EV) charging software platform that allows driving with the cheapest and greenest energy available while controlling the time at which EVs charge when at home, to smooth out the peaks in electricity demand.
GridBeyond simplifies the complex energy landscape with a single, unified platform. By connecting energy intensive equipment, embedded generation and storage to GridBeyond’s intelligent energy platform.
Heila has developed a decentralized hardware and software solution to coordinate a collection of distributed energy resources (DERs), in which the bulk of the DERs’ control and optimization is performed at the asset level.
HypeLabs developed the Hype SDK, an interoperable mesh networking software that improves connectivity on all kinds of devices, from mobile to desktop to IoT.
The Innovus breakthrough is the use of its proprietary software and power converters to control power quality; frequency, voltage and waveform instead of Synchronous Generation which was invented in 1890.
Keewi solves the problem of energy inefficiency in commercial buildings due to plug loads, through hardware, software, and behavioral gamification components.
A machine learning based non-invasive load monitoring (NILM) system to inspire households for positive behavioral change and engage households towards sustainable energy consumption.
Powerpeers aims to accelerate the energy transition bottom-up. Powerpeers digitizes every kWh, creating an energy marketplace and community offering unrivaled transparency of provenance.
A digital platform that drastically reduces transactions’ costs for energy services, enabling customers to achieve a ~1000x reduction in proposal time, unlocking the potential of the SME market.
Solandeo provides AI as a digital service (SaaS) for energy traders and grid operators, supporting better decision making by human experts – and, eventually, fully automated trading and grid management under AI supervision.
Synvertec helps facilitate high levels of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and Distributed Energy Resources (DER) within diverse electricity grids, while also significantly enhancing grid stability.
Treverity integrates the data from core enterprise systems (CIS, OMS, ERP, GIS, DMS, etc.), providing a unified view for all employees, along with purpose-built applications to enhance productivity and communications.
Xenotta provides data hosting solutions for the co-location, edge computing, private cloud and disaster recovery markets located on strategic sites with a planned global roll-out.
Arwin and Beta-i are launching a new joint initiative, called (RE)SET, a European accelerator 100% dedicated to innovations in the Circular Economy. The goal is to enable major groups to identify global innovations and integrate the best ones into their economic and industrial models.
Géraldine Poivert, former Deputy Managing Director of Citeo and co-founder of Arwin, and Pedro Rocha Vieira, President of Beta-i, announced today the creation of (RE)SET, a joint venture combining Arwin’s expertise in the field of Circular Economy and Beta-I’s know-how in the field of open innovation and acceleration.
(RE)SET is the first European initiative dedicated to innovation in the circular economy sector for large groups in different industries. Between Paris and Lisbon, this project aims to support industrial groups in their ecological transformation and to place the circular economy at the heart of their strategic and industrial development.
New consumer trends, regulatory pressure, ability to attract talents or investors, and future business models around resources and energy – these are some of the complex challenges driving the circular economy.
For large companies, the environmental arena is becoming clearly strategic. The challenge is no longer to convince, but to act, and move from a risk and compliance model to an opportunity and competitiveness based logic. Because the best performers on Circular Economy topics will necessarily be the best placed to become the champions of tomorrow, as the pressure on natural resources and the risks related to climate change impact the economic world.
With (RE)SET, the industry springs into action
The (RE)SET approach is simple: to associate the leaders of each industrial ecosystem with the best environmental innovations, so that they can collaborate effectively and deploy concrete solutions adapted to the needs and projects of companies. By combining the production capacities of the major groups and the inventiveness of the most innovative companies, companies can strengthen their competitiveness and find viable markets. (RE)SET aims to create a virtuous circle that combines growth and economic attractiveness, while effectively addressing the challenges of climate change.
We combine economy, ecology, strategic analysis and operational implementation. (RE)SET provides essential solutions to start the circular economy on a large scale. Yesterday’s promises are today’s truths: replacing plastic packaging, transforming food waste into biogas, eco-designing furniture or filtering microplastics in water, it is possible today if we use the right methods.
Géraldine Poivert, co-founder of Arwin and President at (RE)SET.
Entire industries and ecosystems have been transformed very quickly thanks to Open Innovation’s new methods. By using the methods we have developed and proven in trade, electronics and energy to solve the problems of climate change, we will enable major groups to integrate the best environmental solutions to meet these now strategic challenges.
Pedro Rocha Vieira, CEO at Beta-i.
A first program dedicated to Plastic-free Packaging
Why packaging first? Because plastic has made it possible to make significant progress on this market to fight food waste, create robust food barriers, lighten containers and above all lower costs. Today, 41% of all plastic production is used for packaging. However, these do not degrade when abandoned and are extremely difficult to recycle into an economic equation that makes sense.
In line with their commitment to the “National Plastics Pact for 2025”, Carrefour and Système U will be the first companies to engage (RE)SET to find the most promising plastic packaging alternatives, for use in stores and retail spaces. The accelerator will allow them to replace part of their plastic portfolio with improved fiber packaging, and to bring about faster change in the technologies and materials used.
Several other programs are being prepared with major sponsors in the areas of water, capital goods, biowaste or textiles, for example. Through these programs, (RE)SET and its partners are taking a step by step approach, balanced with both conviction and efficiency, in the fight against climate change.
On our Fintech Trends of 2019 report, we highlighted that one of the big trends would be change brought on by new regulations, namely the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2). It’s a European Union Directive with the aim to contribute to the creation of a single market of payment services in Europe.
The directive
The Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2), enables bank customers, both consumers, and businesses, to use third-party providers to manage their finances, aiming to be safe for all entities involved, efficient in time and in costs and communications infrastructure, innovative by opening opportunities for new services and competitive, pushing for an ecosystem where several providers work on.
The new players
PSD2 creates the conditions for any client (private or business) to authorize their bank to give access to their account and payment information to any other providers properly authorized by national regulations – what is called Third Party Providers (TPP).
These third party providers can be Payment Initiation Service Providers (PISP), that provide payment alternatives to credit and debit cards, Account Information Service Providers (AISP), that aggregate information, online, information from multiple accounts and offer their customers an overview of their financial position, or Account Servicing Payment Service Providers (ASPSP), that make available and hold the payment accounts of consumers.
In a nutshell, the open banking API allows these third-party providers to access consumers’ financial information (with their permission) so they can provide them with new and innovative services.
A consumer-centric market
With the implementation of PSD2, banks will no longer be competing with just other banks, but every other financial services provider. Changing the payments value chain and which business models are profitable, will result in a more consumer-centric approach to the business.
As consumers expect an increased digitalization, banks will have a harder time differentiating themselves, so they will be partnering up with startups in fintech to provide new services and better experiences, fitting customers’ convenience and expectations.
The benefits
In the end, PSD2 is a directive working towards a more open and innovative fintech market that will achieve:
More security in electronic payments: Through the use of consumer authentication methods which comply with European standards and the accountability of payment service providers in the event of unauthorized payment transactions
Better protection against fraud and payment incidents for both consumers and merchants: By certifying all payment service providers who may have access to consumers’ bank details
The emergence of payment methods tailored to consumers and merchants: thanks to reduced costs in infrastructure and transactions.
The impact of it all is still to be seen – banks must comply with all the regulations of the directive by September 2019 – but bigger players are already taking notice of the impact the directive might have on the financial market: global fintech investment has doubled to €43 billion in 2018, according to DealRoom.co.
