Apply now for our 2024 cohort
We look for diverse, innovative start-ups that will pave the way in clean energy.
If you are a forward-thinking founder with new ideas that can help unlock the next generation of net zero technologies, we want to hear from you.
Deadline: 1 October 2023, 23:00 (GMT)
Our TechX Clean Energy Accelerator is an intensive 15-week programme for 12 innovative clean energy start-ups with clear potential to accelerate the transition to an affordable net zero energy industry.
- Up to £100k grant per start-up*
- Open to start-ups globally
- Single or multi-team founders welcome
- Targeting clean energy start-ups at technology readiness level 2 to 6
*Note: the £100,000 grant is repayable under certain circumstances and all participants in the programme must sign an agreement to this effect. Alternatively, through mutual agreement, the Net Zero Technology Centre and participant may sign an advance subscription agreement (also known as a SAFE – Simple Agreement for Future Equity).
Programme Benefits
Receive up to £100,000 grant funding, expert support and mentoring on:
Testing your value proposition and business model with technical experts and potential industrial customers across the value chain.
Creating a prototype or minimum viable product.
Pitching to potential customers at our final showcase Demo Day, where the cohort competes to win a share of £200K in cash prizes.
Securing field trials to pilot your solution with the industry including bp, Equinor, ADNOC and our other partners.
Structuring capital raising and pitches to investors, before putting it into practice in investor meetings.
Building diverse teams.
Connecting into the Net Zero Technology Centre’s extensive energy industry network and maximising the benefit.
Articulating your start-up story and developing your brand.
Structuring your business optimally from a legal and tax perspective.
Calculating and demonstrating your technology’s carbon impact.
Protecting your IP, developing an IP strategy and applying for patents.
Growing your company with an additional two years of business support and co-working space.
Testing your value proposition and business model with technical experts and potential industrial customers across the value chain.
Creating a prototype or minimum viable product.
Pitching to potential customers at our final showcase Demo Day, where the cohort competes to win a share of £200K in cash prizes.
Securing field trials to pilot your solution with the industry including bp, Equinor, ADNOC and our other partners.
Structuring capital raising and pitches to investors, before putting it into practice in investor meetings.
Building diverse teams.
Connecting into the Net Zero Technology Centre’s extensive energy industry network and maximising the benefit.
Articulating your start-up story and developing your brand.
Structuring your business optimally from a legal and tax perspective.
Calculating and demonstrating your technology’s carbon impact.
Protecting your IP, developing an IP strategy and applying for patents.
Growing your company with an additional two years of business support and co-working space.
Our technology focus areas
- CCUS and carbon removal solutions
- Low carbon hydrogen
- Alternative fuels and green chemicals
- Renewable power: offshore and onshore
- Digital solutions
- Decarbonised heat and cooling, & other
Global partners
We draw on expertise and support from our global partner network. From provision of workshops and delivery sessions, to potential customers who can advance technology and prototype development, our partners are key to unlocking the success of our start-ups.
Our Strategic Partners bp, Equinor Ventures and ADNOC provide our start-ups with access to technology experts, investment opportunities and the potential for field trials.
Our Professional Services Partner Accenture supports the TechX team and gives our start-ups expert tutoring during the 15-week programme.
£88M+
in equity funding raised by start-ups
£15M+
in revenue generated
200+
employees hired
8
start-ups commercialised
We have established a community of 57 disruptive start-ups that are actively growing. Explore how they are shaping a net zero future.
Actuation Lab
Actuation Lab
Working with the UK’s National Composites Centre, Actuation Lab is developing high performance, maintenance free, corrosion resistant actuators that are designed to survive in the world’s most extreme environments.
Actuation Lab are working with NZTC’s Solution Centre on a project to develop their non-contact, maintenance-free valve mechanism. This technology can be utilised for a range of applications including hydrogen containment.
ACUA Ocean
ACUA Ocean
Offering hydrogen power train technology to propel unmanned surface vessels.
Ai Exploration
Ai Exploration
Ai Exploration has developed a multi-phase system for enabling real-time surveillance of single wells across the entire oil field, to adjust and automate production and reduce unscheduled downtime. Ai Exploration won the bp Technology Award during their participation in the TechX Accelerator programme.
Ai Exploration worked with NZTC’s Solution Centre to develop and extend the capabilities of their novel multiphase flow measurement system. This included engineering an industrial prototype and measuring its impact in a range of environments.
Aquature
Aquature
Aquature offer a technology to produce green chemicals and carbon neutral fuels from wastewater, using a net energy-positive bio-electrochemical process
Aquature won the TechX Performance Award during their participation in Cohort 4 of the TechX Accelerator programme.
BeeX Autonomous Systems
BeeX Autonomous Systems
BeeX is currently developing hovering autonomous underwater vehicles that can be paired with subscription-based software, allowing service providers to spend less time on capturing and processing data before it reaches the asset owners to make quicker, more informed decisions. The autonomy will enable inspections to take place without sending anyone offshore, taking workers out of hazardous environments. The technology can reduce carbon emissions by 50 tonnes a day (per vehicle) by having more flexible deployment options, rather than solely relying on large polluting vessels as is done today. Overall BeeX’s technology enables critical inspections to be undertaken with less resources, in less time.
BeeX’s autonomous vehicles will help ensure that windfarm infrastructure is maintained and inspected on a much more regular cycle as there is no marginal cost.
Blue Gentoo
Blue Gentoo
Blue Gentoo provides its clients with the ability to actively manage gas hydrate risks. The company is developing a gas hydrate management solution to provide real-time monitoring of gas production flow. This will mitigate and manage the formation of gas hydrates and ensure the efficient dosing of ‘anti-freeze’ chemicals saving the customer millions on OPEX.
Brayfoil Technologies
Brayfoil Technologies
Switching on 93.6GW in new global capacity in 2021, the wind industry had its second-best year ever, but installations still must quadruple by the end of the decade for the sector to contribute to the world reaching a 1.5℃ pathway and net zero by mid-century, according to the Global Wind Energy Council. For the wind industry, this means more turbines and new, advanced technologies to produce more power from the same device.
Brayfoil Technologies’ offering does just that. Founded by Matthew and his father Robert Bray, the start-up is developing a biomimetic shape-changing blade that can reduce excess loadings in gusts and storm conditions, thereby enabling larger and more efficient turbines. The blade acts like an aircraft wing’s flaps and ailerons but without the complexity; it has an intrinsic lifting shape which can actively change using an internal actuator to vary the lift and drag and thereby reduce loadings. As the shape changes, the blade’s angle also shifts relative to the incoming wind for faster adaptation to changing conditions.
With the company based in South Africa, Brayfoil Technologies are keen to utilise TechX’s global network to get closer to potential customers and develop a full understanding of the wind ecosystem. To date, the company has built a number of prototypes and plan to launch their first pilot turbine later this year with 7.5 metre blades and a height of 25 metres.
BSC Separation Technology
BSC Separation Technology
BSC Separation Technology is developing a super-compact multi-phase separator which can be used to de-bottleneck existing production systems. It can reduce topsides production system space and weight for new field developments, tie-backs and super-compact subsea separation.
BSC Separation Technology are working with NZTC’s Solution Centre on a project to develop their super-compact separator. Their funding from NZTC has already allowed them to complete a computational fluid dynamics study in collaboration with Robert Gordon University (RGU) to optimise their design. They are continuing to develop their solution with RGU, currently focusing on the design, build and testing phase.
Carnot
Carnot
Carnot is developing ceramic engines with double the efficiency and half the fuel consumption/CO2 emissions of current engines. Key target markets are generators and marine/automotive propulsion. The engine will be developed to run on all fuels including biofuels and hydrogen.
Creid 7
Creid 7
Creid7 offers a Wellhead Installation and Integrity Inspection Tool to validate correct installation of equipment in real time while characterising seal condition. Creid 7 has filed a UK patent and PCT application, and was awarded a £100k Scottish Enterprise SMART feasibility grant to further develop this technology.
Dunia Innovation
Dunia Innovation
Dunia Innovation is developing the world’s first self-driving laboratory for electrocatalytic CO2 utilisation, significantly speeding up catalyst discovery.
eCERTO
eCERTO
eCERTO is driving the adoption of INTEGRATI™, the eCommerce Platform that optimises the management of capital projects & decommissioning delivering both trust and value for customers and contractors alike.
INTEGRATI™ brings together commercial innovation with dynamic pricing to cost every possible outcome with certainty.
Electrogenos
Electrogenos
Developing a novel catalyst and electroplating process for alkaline electrolysers.
Envio
Envio
Envio’s solution allows equipment to be tracked through a digital tracing mechanism. Originally developed for tracking the transportation of high value retail goods, the technology is being deployed to monitor the movement of mission critical equipment offshore.
Envio’s proprietary equipment containers remotely verify contents, location, usage and even prevent tools that are out of certification from being used.
Envio worked with NZTC’s Solution Centre on a project to develop their digital equipment label that can display dynamic information to help navigate an asset through a complex supply chain. This included operational testing through a number of field trials.
Epoch Biodesign
Epoch Biodesign
Epoch Biodesign is developing a patent-pending enzyme for the low-energy bio-recycling of plastics into valuable chemicals. Through this, the company is facilitating and accelerating the transition to a carbon-negative future.
Fluxart
Fluxart
Offering cryogenic superconducting hydrogen motors to decarbonise aviation.
Green Mesa
Green Mesa
Software analytics solution that enables accurate emissions monitoring of assets, allowing for proactive emissions management while eliminating logistical risks.
HonuWorx
HonuWorx
HonuWorx offers a submersible all-electric motherships. With a high degree of autonomy, the systems allow for the deployment and operation of subsea robots, all controlled and supervised entirely from shore. Acting as an electric alternative to large diesel powered vessels, this innovative solution eliminates the need for a crew in hazardous conditions, while driving down CO2 emissions by up to 30 tonnes per day (per vehicle), and the cost of collecting necessary data required to make informed decisions, addressing customers’ evolving needs. Unaffected by the weather above the surface or seasonal changes, the technology enables a year-round service.
