Shell’s incubation and start-up programme E4 sees 13 startups graduate

Global energy major Shell has announced that after the remarkable success of two editions of the Shell E4 (Energising and Enabling Energy Entrepreneurs) programme, its third cohort of 13 start-ups graduated on this year’s Demo Day, which is said to be the largest Energy Entrepreneurship Conference in India.

The virtual event was held from November 3-5, the graduation brought together a unique energy entrepreneur ecosystem of investors, start-ups, corporates and academia to support energy entrepreneurs and their solutions. The 2020 event saw about 2,000 participants join in.

At the Shell E4 Demo Day 13 start-up graduated which include Energos, Magenta Power, eee Taxi, GoGreen EOT, APChemi, Commutec, Logic Ladder, OffGrid, Jal Technologies, IOTomation, Nirvana, Stelae Technologies and Rezlytix which operate in diverse domains and backgrounds.

The company says these start-ups are making use of advanced technology and innovative business model solutions such as battery technology, vehicle-as-a-service, shared mobility, fleet digitisation, with many focusing on the electric vehicle ecosystem. Some of them are also working on introducing cutting edge innovation to the energy management space to tackle some of the world’s most pressing concerns such as pollution control, energy distribution & storage, and waste management.

James Unterreiner, general manager, Shell E4 Programme said, “Keeping in mind the energy challenges and current ecosystem, we decided to include more sectors and empower start-ups in the mobility and digital space in this edition. We hope to keep identifying and engaging with start-ups that have the talent and vision to innovate technology and accelerate India’s transition to a sustainable energy future.”

The energy major says it continues to nurture the relationship with all its incubated start-ups under the E4 programme through the Shell E4 alumni network, bringing together groups of start-ups in key areas such as e-mobility, digital, renewable energy, waste to fuel, among others.

There are several success stories defining this year’s start-ups: Magenta Power has recently signed a contract with Stumpp Schuele & Somappa Springs for designing, developing and manufacturing EV charging sockets in India. Another start-up OffGrid has been recently been recognised by the government of India, BIRAC, and Tata Power for its exceptional work in the energy space. APChemi, while part of the E4 programme, secured a 50-tonne-per-day chemical recycling plant for plastic waste for London, to name a few.

With the 2020 Demo Day, a total of 30 start-ups have graduated from Shell’s E4 programme since its inception. The company aims to incubate at least 20-25 start-ups starting next year. Shell says it has ramped up the selection for the upcoming Digital Track, which is due to kick off in January 2021. This track will primarily focus on smart digital technologies and disrupt the new energy business both in India and globally.

The company says it also has an international track for foreign energy-related start-ups looking to enter the Indian market and establish operations here. The program aims to support these start-ups in establishing an in-country presence and scaling their business in India. The Shell E4 Start-up Hub offers world-class programmes to support and enable energy-related start-ups at various levels of maturity. The programmes are tailor-made in ways that suit the unique nature of energy start-ups, which typically require longer gestation periods.

The details of the graduating start-ups of the Shell E4 Demo Day 2020 are –

Commutec is transforming the employee transportation business into a mobility service by digitising fleet operators and providing protocol-driven, technology enabled fleet for corporate employee transportation. Its end to end SAAS ERP automation solution allows users to improve fleet utilisation, enhance safety and reduce operational costs through technology and analytics, helping fleet operators increase profit margins.

eee-Taxi provides a fleet of electric vehicles for corporate-employee transportation. This includes route optimisation services which minimises travel time by combining telematics, technology and the EV ecosystem leading to higher productivity and revenue. Additionally, eee- Taxi provides charge point management system for other EV users to plug in their vehicles enabling a charging marketplace.

Magenta Power is in the business of clean energy solutions - generation, adoption, and utilisation. Under the Charge Grid brand, Magenta offers universal AC EV charging infrastructure designed for India’s heat, humidity, and usage condition and to be powered by solar. Some of the key highlights of Magenta Power include India's first solar-based EV charging station, India's first EV Highway (Mumbai- Pune) and India's first EV billing meter. It is also developing solutions for the propagation of EV charging infrastructure in rural India.

Go GreenEOT helps B2B/logistics companies realise reduced costs in last-mile delivery by providing a Vehicle-As-a-Service model (vehicle, battery, charging, insurance) at a monthly cost. Enabling this electric vehicle focused business model is Go GreenEOT's IP in hybrid battery and innovative cooling solutions, providing increased battery pack life.

Energos helps commercial and industrial customers realise 15-20 percent of energy savings by adding intelligence to automate and optimise energy flows through edge-deployed self-tuning algorithms. These algorithms are part of an end-to-end platform (including middleware, cloud analytics and visualisation) that can be used as is or integrated with proprietary solutions via APIs or standard protocols. Energos solutions have applications in HVAC optimisation and forecasting of distributed energy resources (DER), including renewables, storage and EVs.

APChemi is a leading solution provider for chemically recycling post-consumer plastic waste including landfill plastic waste. Its unique technology can convert waste plastic into an oil that can replace the crude oil or naphtha for production of circular economy plastics. APChemi has proven the technology for pyrolysis of waste plastic, tyre and biomass. Since 2007, APChemi has commissioned more than 30 reactors. Today, APChemi's patented technology prevents landfilling of more than 75,000kg/day of plastic waste.

IOTomation offers building IoT platform, which improves energy efficiency through automation of buildings. Offering a Pay-as-You-use subscription model reduces customer risk while providing higher degrees of flexibility.  Their vendor agnostic full stack SAAS building management system provides vendor implication by allowing for fire, safety, heating, cooling, electrical modules to be managed through one solution leading to increased operational efficiency.

LogicLadder offers sustainability management and pollution monitoring solutions approved by the government of India.  The solutions enable customers to acquire real-time enterprise-wide energy and environment data to assess their environmental risks, predict anomalies, detect non-compliance and leverage machine learning for actionable insights. Leading companies, smart cities, and governments use their cloud platform to monitor, coordinate and achieve their sustainability goals and meet environmental compliance standards. 

Nirvana Technologies has patented its Thermo Acoustic Power Stick (TAPS) technology which enables unparalleled benefits to the consumer. The technology converts gas into electricity at an efficiency greater than the average efficiency of the US power grid.

Jal Technologies offers indoor and outdoor solutions to measure and monitor air pollution in smart cities and industries. They help the government, policy makers and citizens to take concrete action by providing an open source platform that analyses the collected data providing actionable insights.

Stelae Technologies’ AI software Khemeia detects and extracts content elements in unstructured documents, extracts meta-data, structures content (paragraphs, images, tables, footnotes, multi-column text) and is currently implemented at major enterprise and public sector entities across many verticals.

Offgrid is focused on bringing disruption to the energy storage market through new materials and batteries designs. The startup has developed rechargeable zinc carbon battery (ZincGel) which outperforms available battery technologies in terms of power density, life and cost. Offgrid aims to cater to multiple industries such as renewables, microgrids, electric vehicles and utilities through its different variants of ZincGel batteries.

Rezlytix utilises data analytics to bring energy intelligence to the upstream oil and gas sector. Its product ProLytix - production analytics and forecasting technology, helps O&G companies in forecasting hydrocarbon productivity and well performance of their reservoirs. Their advanced machine learning platform integrates geological, geophysical, and engineering data providing operators with smart well paths for drilling future wells efficiently while enhancing overall productivity and maximising profits. RezLytix also has multiple tools which intelligently identify best fracking zones in a well for higher performance.