Technological start-ups accelerate the energy transition in the face of the Russian onslaught

“Technology start-ups are always looking for financing, while investors complain that there are no good projects to invest in”, jokes the co-founder of one of the Catalan emerging companies who was present between September 28 and 29 in The Business Booster.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
02 October 2022 Sunday 01:46
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Technological start-ups accelerate the energy transition in the face of the Russian onslaught

“Technology start-ups are always looking for financing, while investors complain that there are no good projects to invest in”, jokes the co-founder of one of the Catalan emerging companies who was present between September 28 and 29 in The Business Booster. For ten years, this meeting organized by the EIT InnoEnergy accelerator has brought together the European entrepreneurial ecosystem to put money in contact with the investment needs of new technological projects called to carry out the energy transition.

Investment and technology seek each other out, but now with more social and economic pressure than ever after the energy crisis unleashed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But where some see crisis, others see opportunities: "This is the best time in history to be an entrepreneur or investor in the field of new technologies for the energy transition," said Mark Hartney, from the consulting firm Breakthrough Energy Ventures. The Business Booster, which this year has been held in Lisbon, has given visibility to 150 technological solutions before 1,200 visitors.

“We need to scale technologies for the race to zero emissions and we are lucky that some of these solutions are already here, in Europe,” said Kerstin Jorna, Director General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs at the European Commission. Climbing involves money, a lot of money, but this is not the problem judging by the statements of the financial sector. "We are constantly looking for new ideas to invest in," said François Gaudet of the European Investment Bank.

EIT InnoEnergy and Banco Santander have taken advantage of The Business Booster to announce the launch of a fund to invest in start-ups with projects that accelerate the energy transition. "The goal is to facilitate access to investment quickly," said Elena Bou, director of innovation at EIT InnoEnergy. Borja Diaz-Llanos, from Santander Asset Management, indicated that "before the end of the year, as soon as we have the approval of the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), the first investments will already be made."

The Business Booster was also the setting chosen for the signing, live, of an alliance for the manufacture of the next generation of silicon anode batteries, which will replace the current lithium-ion batteries. It is a three-way deal between silicon anode maker GDI, glass supplier AGC Glass Europe and Carl Schlenk AG of the mining industry. GDI is also the winning company of the speech contest that has taken place within The Business Booster. The second position went to Rosi Solar, dedicated to the search for innovative solutions for the recycling and recovery of raw materials in the photovoltaic industry, and the third to Ecop Technologies GmbH, a start-up that manufactures rotary heat pumps for use industry through a new and multi-patent technology.

The Business Booster has shown investors some of the technologies already in existence that are poised to lead the way to zero-emission energy, but many more are yet to come. According to the International Energy Agency, half of the technologies needed to achieve an economic system without greenhouse gas emissions have not yet been invented.