Smart Energy Demo Day 2018: the Next Level

In a packed house, Rockstart presented its latest accelerator batch of nine startups in smart energy. Halfway through the accelerator program, these startups have demonstrated to be more mature, scalable, and investible than previous ventures. This batch of startups are engaging faster with industry players, growing their revenues quickly, and raising more interest from investors.  The nine startups took the stage to present their business and investment requirements to investors, mentors, and stakeholders from the smart energy ecosystem.

The smart energy program is focused on making the startups scalable by providing them access to expertise, community, market, and capital. The program offers our startups intensive learning through Deep Dive weeks that aim to teach them relevant business knowledge through tailored events and group sessions. As well as continuous mentorship from our network of mentors and advisors.

Program Director Freerk Bisschop – a veteran industry entrepreneur and investor – clearly laid out the current energy landscape and its future. "We're passing a tipping point – from an outdated and stupid fossil-fueled system to a smart, clean, distributed energy supply. Investors and forward-thinking industry players recognize and embrace this – the momentum is growing!".

To highlight these statements, Rockstart invited three of our successful startups from previous smart energy programs to share their achievements and outlook on stage – Sympower, WeShareSolar, and Sundata. This was just the warm-up for the presentions from this year's Smart Energy accelerator program. Here is an overview of the nine startups and their progress over thus far in the Smart Energy Program.

Greener Power Solutions (The Netherlands) implements mobile battery solutions in on- & off-grid situations as a sustainable solution for temporary power demand. Through this, it is able to offer a cleaner and quiet alternative to diesel generators. Greener Power Solutions already has its first battery in use and revenue has been 150% higher than forecasted. This past month it has financed its second battery and will have another equity round in 2019.

Instant Energy (Nigeria) provides a smart energy platform that allows users to pay energy bills, invest, connect and share clean renewable energy. Through this it is able to simplify the management of energy, which brings power usage monitoring a user's fingertips, allowing for more transparency and consumer independence. Instant Energy is on track to facilitate a community-owned decentralized microgrid system, where users can invest, connect and share power with their neighbors at a cheaper cost than running a generator.

Fibersail (Portugal) sensor helps wind turbines to improve performance +4% by precisely measuring the bending of rotor blades during operation. Its fiber optic sensors approach allows for a simple and easy integration across the entire length of any critical structure. Fibersail is on its way to the OEM Ground testing stage (Letter of Intent signed).

Mynergy (India) helps Indian clean energy service companies access European investors by working with local crowdfunding platforms and facilitating transactions. This enables them to provide funding for projects in clean energy, rooftop solar systems, microgrids, and energy efficiency. Mynergy ran its first pilot campaign this year and raised 200K to fund 24 micro-grids in India. It is now on track to run five campaigns in the upcoming year with a total of 1 million raised.  

NetAnders (The Netherlands) provides near real-time insight into sustainable energy across the complete energy system and makes it available for everyone. Its product is currently in use at Friesland Campina – its first major customer. After the launch of the product at Friesland Campina, awareness and interest about the product increased greatly with major companies expressing interest in forming partnerships or using the technology.

Dexter Energy (The Netherlands) uses AI to forecast electricity. This enables energy companies to optimize their portfolio and reduce imbalance costs by up to 30%. It offers advanced machine learning to clients. Dexter Energy currently has commercial pilots with three clients for 2018, as well as three successful pilot projects and one implementation. It has outperformed in-house forecasting teams and competitors in tenders. Dexter Energy further scale-up will include an expansion to other major European countries as well as fostering new Dutch leads.  

Gridhound (Germany) offers Distribution System Operators an AI-based solution for state-estimation and monitoring, saving up to 45% of their costs. Gridhoud is participating in three Horizon 2020-EU projects with a funding of €500k, which aims to support the distribution system operators in meeting the challenges of energy change. Its first product version is also currently being validated in several national and international field tests that are already taking place on the real power grid. They recently received also an investment by Business Angels.

FlexiDAO (Spain) transforms the way Energy Retailers manage data to create positive business cases that unlock new digital and green energy services. Energy retailers are able to automatically manage, control, and optimize data and electricity flow from consumers assets through FlexiDAO’s software. Its growth is driven by geographic expansion and by expanding into new energy services. With its first major client – Acciona – FlexiDAO is planning to expended outside of Europe.

AMMP (Germany) provides real-time operational intelligence to reduce costs and streamline management of mini-grids in emerging markets. It allows users to obtain an integrated view of off-grid energy systems. Users are able to obtain an integrated view of asset performance within a single visualization platform. AMMP has proven its concept through monitoring 75 assets from five customers and plans to have 40 customers with 1000 assets enrolled by the end of 2020.