Ten Start-Ups Graduate from Second Cohort at Shell E4

Ten start-ups, which were selected by Shell for incubation at the Shell Technology Centre Bangalore in January 2019, have graduated from the programme.

Going forward the programme has an interesting growth journey. Following the larger energy focused cohorts, Shell will also be empowering start-ups under specific themes and sub-sectors and today announced that the 3rd cohort of the E4 programme will focus on digital startups and the 4th cohort will focus on the theme ‘Future of Mobility for India’. The registrations for the 4th cohort are open from July 15 — October 15, 2019.

“Keeping in mind the idea behind introducing Shell E4, we have and shall keep identifying and engaging with start-ups who have the talent and vision to innovate technology that will further accelerate India’s transition to a sustainable energy future.” said James Unterreiner, General Manager, Shell E4 Start-up Hub. “Shell has a broad view of energy : not just oil and gas but hydrogen, solar, wind etc. We have a growth, scale and international track.”

There are 25 start-ups in the third cohort of the E4 programme.

“We are bringing in various focus tracks into the programme. ‘Future of mobility’ has just gone live on the website and will launch on the ground by mid October. Digital start-ups for energy is another track. In the future we will do additional focus tracks like energy efficiency” he added.

The ten start-ups have differentiated product offerings like Battery Management, Digital — AR/VR, Mobility Solutions, Logistics, Energy Management, Operations Efficiency and Energy IOT Applications. While a number of these start-ups are working towards a pilot with Shell businesses, some others are closely working with Shell to co-create customer solutions.

With an overall approach to nurture a culture of open innovation, through various programmes like Research Connect, Shell Technology Ventures and Shell E4, Shell endeavours to support, engage and empower start-ups at various stages of their lifecycle.

Shell Ventures now has a presence in India.

Launched in 2017, Shell E4 programme aims at playing a prominent role in accelerating technologies that are fit for India’s energy transition. Shell Technology Centre Bangalore is one of the few cutting edge R&D centres in India and one of the very few in the energy space.

One of the company’s three global innovation hubs, the centre, houses the Shell E4 start-ups at a co-working space for six months. The start-ups are offered a seed funding of USD 20,000 each and access to prototyping laboratories for product development and testing, Bootcamps aimed at customer discovery and improving the product, Top industry mentors and experts, New markets and interactions with investors and other growth and funding opportunities.

Shell organised the second edition of Shell E4 Demo Day, an Energy Entrepreneurship Conference in India on July 16, 2019 in Bangalore. The event included a gathering of energy focused start-ups along with the attendance of Arvind Tiwary, Chair, IoT Forum, TiE and Subhashini Chandran, EVP and Managing Director — India at Xynteo.

“At Shell, we constantly strive to strengthen our commitment to partner energy entrepreneurs and take steady steps towards India’s transition to a sustainable tomorrow,” said Sada Iyer, Shell Technology Centre Bangalore Leader. “We are hopeful that the next year will see even more diverse energy start-ups striving towards an advanced and sustainable ecosystem with Shell E4.”

According to a communiqué from the company, the start-ups in the first cohort have witnessed significant growth in their businesses since their graduation last year : Detect Technologies successfully raised Series A funding of $3.3 million from Tier 1 VCs and their cofounders is featured in the Forbes 30 under 30 in both India and Asia. ION Energy’s advanced battery management & intelligence platform is being used by top tier OEMs and Battery Pack Makers in 10+ countries. IoTrek is piloting with 2 Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) companies at construction job sites in India and commercially launched product for US market; partnering with General Contractors to deploy the pilot projects.

Startups also have the opportunity to work closely with Shell businesses themselves. For instance, Detect Technologies is working on joint R&D projects with Shell. As alumni of the programme, the startups will continue receiving access to the E4 laboratory, in addition to support from the Shell E4 team for Shell deployment opportunities.

Shell E4 2nd cohort

• RightWatts: RightWatts is building an ‘Open Platform for Industrial Apps’. Targeted at industries, buildings, utilities and data centres, their No-Code Platform helps solution providers working in these segments to build, deploy and replicate ‘Industrial Apps’ at scale. Using the platform, providers can themselves build full stack hardware-to-software complex Industrial Apps leveraging technologies like IoT, Cloud, Analytics & AI. Their ‘Industrial Appstore’ fosters a market around re-usable Apps (under provider’s own brand), enabling distribution of single-App or multiple-App combinations to save money. They are enabling new business models in this market, fundamentally doing what Android did in the Consumer Apps market.
• Manastu Space: Currently, satellites carry a highly toxic and carcinogenic propellant which will be banned by 2021 internationally. Manastu Space, a start-up established on 17th April’17 has designed a green propulsion system consisting of hydrogen peroxide based green propellant, engine associated with it and catalyst providing 40 times less toxicity, 25% higher performance, resulting in up to 30% cost savings for satellite manufacturers.
• Mobycy: MOBYCY is solving India’s last mile connectivity problem during daily commutes between Metro, home and office by providing specially designed electric scooters — Zypp; which can be found on the Mobycy app and unlocked by scanning a QR code to start the ride. Their IoT keyless lock solution can convert any scooter into a smart scooter and they’re doing 50K+ monthly rides, thereby reducing cars and making cities more sustainable.
• AutoVRse: Founded on 23 November’16, AutoVRse creates immersive AR/VR environments for a variety of applications such as automotive design reviews, immersive product experience, immersive training, immersive virtual collaboration etc. The solutions provided by the company are platform agnostic.
• igrenEnergi: igrenEnergi has developed a Battery Management System which makes feasible the mass adoption of EVs. Its BMS delivers 20–40% improvement in range, charging time & cycle life, and enables business models like battery swapping, rental, off-line charging, and second-life. Its proprietary deep-tech innovations combine advanced power electronics, edge-computing algorithms and IoT + cloud intelligence to energize the mass market viability of EV batteries and EVs.
• Maximl: Maximl is building a new age industrial collaboration platform to streamline last mile communication and rapidly digitalize ground operations to enable real-time decision making and effective collaboration between field and office for industrial workforce. Their flagship product, SyncOps is a smart project management platform that enables real time monitoring of industrial projects including turnarounds and commissioning projects by connecting every stakeholder of the industrial ecosystem, reducing project time and cost. This is powered by a low code workflow management system designed for use cases within process industries to quickly build digital solutions.
• LogisticsNow: LogisticsNow is building the Digital Backbone of global Logistics to help customers develop a stronger technology enabled transportation and logistics business. Their initial focus is on emerging markets like India, where there are significant challenges in terms of lack of business visibility, utilization, transparency and payments.
• TresMoto: TresMoto, start-up established on 1st July’15 is re-imagining the future of mobility. Their first offering is a plug and play scooter for dock less rental and micro-delivery service providers. These are purpose built, connected scooters supported by modern day services and sub-systems. They have unique innovations in their designs and development which lets them price their products at par with petrol.
• Ziptrax: Ziptrax aims to provide low cost, infinitely serviceable battery energy storage to the masses by re-purposing Li-ion batteries for 2nd use applications such as E-mobility and Energy Storage. Based on Ziptrax’s proprietary AI and Machine Learning technology that integrates portable hardware with intelligent plug-and-play SaaS. Ziptrax’s Batteries provide Superior benefits of Li-Ion Battery while being cost competitive and better replacements for Lead Acid Batteries.
• iGarage: iGarage, recently founded on 1st January’19 is an integrated technology-based marketplace platform that offers convenience, value for money and promise of reliability to fill the gap of customer inconvenience for vehicle lifestyle ownership. Their platform has established brand ecosystem partners managed by multi-industry expertise & entrepreneurs.