Energy Starter, a global innovation program created by EDP which is taking place in Singapore this year on 16 – 18 April, has selected the nine most innovative startups that will advance to the next stage of the program. After a first module dedicated to solutions for the electrical grids of the future, this second phase looks for startups with disruptive ideas that could be applied to renewable energy and green H₂, which are strategic areas for the energy sector and for EDP's growth.

The Energy Starter program is part of EDP’s strategy in innovation, which includes investments through 2023-2026 to accelerate new impactful businesses and promote the fast adoption of innovative solutions to lead the energy transition. The program connects startups and scaleups to EDP experts across the globe and fast-tracks the development of impactful and disruptive pilot-projects, commercial deployments and investment opportunities. It will be taking place from 16 – 18 April in Singapore.

Over the last seven editions of Energy Starter, EDP has selected 192 startups from 27 countries, jointly developing 75 pilot projects, 28 commercial rollouts and 15 venture capital investments that have already begun to reshape the energy landscape – these projects represent a total of €24 MM in deals. Nine startups from six geographic locations were selected and three are based in Singapore, namely:

• BeeX Autonomous Systems, which is focused on providing hovering autonomous underwater vehicles (HAUV) for the inspection of energy assets.
• Quantified Energy Labs, which is specialized in the inspection of solar energy plants with autonomous drones coupled to pioneering electroluminescence (EL) technology
• SunGreenH2, which develops high-performance nanostructure materials to enable large-scale adoption of affordable green H₂.

To select the best startups, EDP hosted an online pitching event and follow-up meetings, allowing the gathering of feedback from various business units and innovation teams across the different geographies of the EDP Group. The chosen companies will participate in a Bootcamp to be held on 16 and 17 April, where they will have the opportunity to work together with several EDP experts to accelerate the development of pilot projects and businesses. In addition, the startups will have access to potential financial support and the experience and network of EDP Ventures, EDP's venture capital arm.

"At EDP, innovation is not just a strategic advantage, it is essential to the energy transition. Through our EDP innovation program, Energy Starter, we actively seek out new technologies, startups, groundbreaking ideas, and projects. We harness the power of these new technologies to accelerate our progress towards achieving our ambitious targets,” said Tomás Moreno Head of Innovation Ecosystem at EDP.

"It's the first time we've held the bootcamp in Asia. EDP is looking for innovative technologies globally and wants to deepen its search in more dynamic innovation ecosystems, such as Japan, South Korea and India," said Tomás Moreno.