PowerUp! 2017
Europe’s biggest energy start-up competition for funding and growth has opened!
Access to mentoring and substantial support from leading energy companies – these priceless benefits are proposed to participants of PowerUp! by InnoEnergy. This was the third edition of the Competition (first time under the new name, previous name: KICkoff) for start-ups and energy industry entrepreneurs from 23 countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The aim of the Competition was to select and accelerate the best CEE start-ups working on the sustainable energy.
Participants acquired skills to boost their businesses during workshops and business coaching with leading energy companies and improved their skills during Final Gala in Budapest in November. The best ideas received financial prizes and an offer to join the InnoEnergy Highway®, where they will get access to support and investment up to €150 000.
Timeframe
- Application: 19th of June – 11th of September 2017
- Regional Bootcamps: October 2017
- Regional Finals: October 2017
- Final`s Bootcamps: November 2017
- The Grand Final: Budapest November 2017
PowerUp! benefits were much more valuable than just financial prizes.
InnoEnergy Highway® acceleration program with investment up to 150.000 €
- 20.000 € for the first place
- 10.000 € for the second place
- 5.000 € for the third place
- International business contacts
- Media attention
- Access to mentoring and substantial support from leading energy companies.
- Practical workshops and business coaching
To see the summary of the previous edition of the competition (KICkoff 2016) click the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjl4iV-kICw&feature=youtu.be
The competition was looking for?
Someone who has a new product or service, time to market max 2 years, has a prototype, dedicated team, secured IP and who has an ambitious plan to become a global company. Innovative start-ups with:
- Technology that has been validated in a relevant environment
- Ambition and enthusiasm to work with a strategic partner to succeed
- An interest in one of our eight areas of focus:
Clean goal and Gas Technology, Energy Storage, Energy Efficiency, Nuclear Instrumentation, Renewable energies, Smart and Efficient Buildings and Cities, Smart Electric Grid, Energy from Chemical Fuels
More information on the website: www.powerup.innoenergy.com
The competition was supported by KiNNO Consultants Ltd, the HUB of InnoEnergy in Greece and Cyprus. For more information about the PowerUp competition you can contact Yiannis Geragotellis and Paris Rallis by phone or by email.
Tel: 210 68 38 950
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. & This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
PowerUp! 2017 – Greek Regional Final - Results
The Greek Regional Final of the PowerUp! 2017 competition, was successfully completed on the 2nd of October 2017 at the premises of Impact HUB Athens, where 8 finalists presented their business ideas in front of the jury of the competition and the audience.
A considerable number of applications were evaluated, before these 8 teams were selected, which had the opportunity to attend a two-day preparatory bootcamp.
The winning team was FLASC, which comes from Malta and is developing floating platforms that store energy, allowing offshore renewables to better meet their energy demand.
PowerUp! 2017 – Grand Final - Results
The Grand Final of the PowerUp! 2017 Competition was successfully completed in November 2017 in Budapest, Hungary.
HeatVentors from Hungary is the winner of this year’s edition of the international PowerUp! Competition for innovative energy start-ups. This company is developing a solution which offers an innovative thermal energy storage with phase change materials which can save 90% space and 20-40% energy with 0,5-2 years return on investment. The technology has a variety of applications for thermal energy storage: from deep freezing technologies to comfort cooling and heating, renewable energy sources, industrial technologies and concentrated solar thermal power plants.
HeatVentors was awarded € 20.000 and a chance to be invited to the prestigiousInnoEnergy Highway® accelerator. The runner-up title and € 10.000 prize was awarded to FLASC from Malta which is an energy storage device that integrates into a floating offshore platform. Third place and € 5.000 went to VIA ALTA from Czech Republic, which is a technology for the production of biofuel from biodegradable waste.
During the Grand Final in Budapest, 12 start-ups presented their solutions before the jury, investors and media. These were the winners of regional finals which took place in Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Greece. The finalists were selected from 158 teams from 24 countries of Central Europe who entered the competition. The stakes were high as the Highway® accelerator is one of the best programmes in cleantech sector in Europe:
“We help actively – we verify the business model, check if the company needs a salesman. We try not to interfere but to show solutions and open doors – we give access to our business and academic partners all over Europe. And this is the main goal of PowerUp! competition” - says Jakub Miler, CEO InnoEnergy Central Europe, the organizer of the competition.
Participation in Highway® was granted to Mebius, the winner of Wild Card, special award from a Global Partner, MOL Group.
Jury included also: György Bacsa, SVP Group Strategy and Business Development, MOL Group; Viktor Miškovský, Investment Director, Inven Capital; Matias Torrellas, Portfolio Manager, InnoEnergy, Łukasz Świercz, Business Creation Officer, InnoEnergy Central Europe, who was the chairman of the Jury, and Agnieszka Wasilewska-Semail, CEO, Rafako S.A.
The audience had a chance to listen to Jonas Kjellberg, one of the co-creators of Skype and venture capital investor.
What makes PowerUp! stand out from other competitions for start-ups is Bootcamp: before the Grand Final, the participants spent two days on verifying their business models and taking their presentation skills to another level. The coaches and mentors included expert business trainers from Central Europe, e.g. Gleb Maltsev, Estonia, Rafał Szczepanik, Poland and Jan Kubalik from Czech Republic.
You can find out more at: http://powerup.innoenergy.com/
