Following the completion of its global sustainability challenge, SHV Energy plans to pursue pilot projects with the three startup winners: IM Efficiency (NL), Combi Fuel (CH) and Gravity Climate (US). It is additionally exploring collaborations with two finalists: Meight (PT) and Sensorfact (NL).
November 14, The Hague. Earlier this summer, SHV Energy — a leading global distributor of off-grid energy serving 30 million customers across 4 continents — invited startups from around the world to participate in its SHV Energy Global Sustainability Challenge. Today, SHV Energy unveiled the three winners of the challenge, who have earned a fully-paid pilot project and access to its network and knowledge. The winners were selected out of six finalists from five different countries, with the six finalists being chosen out of over 50 startup applications. They are:
IM Efficiency (The Netherlands): Retrofittable solar panel technology for trucks that results in considerable reduction of fuel consumption and CO2 emission.
CombiFuel (Switzerland): Unique retrofittable LPG conversion kit for diesel trucks and semi trucks, enabling up to 50% use of (r)DME, Bio-LPG and LPG, thus reducing emissions and cost.
Gravity Climate (USA): Data-driven step-by-step guidance on actions to reduce emissions while making it easy to share insights with upstream and downstream partners.
Furthermore, SHV Energy is exploring collaborations and pilot opportunities with two startup finalists:
Meight (Portugal): End-to-end freight platform from dispatch planning to route planning and a driver app that can train drivers to drive more sustainably on the job.
Sensorfact (The Netherlands): Wireless sensors to measure energy consumption on machine level every 30 seconds, providing actionable insights on how to reduce energy consumption.
This challenge was set up for SHV Energy to collaborate with innovative startups and make off-grid energy distribution more carbon neutral. SHV Energy was looking for practical solutions focused on: Efficient Transportation & Logistics, Smart Facilities and Decision Support Systems. It partnered with Unknown Group, a Dutch VC and open innovation firm, with a view to expanding its existing open innovation activities.
Michael Kossack, COO and Member of the Management Board at SHV Energy said: “The winners of our global sustainability challenge can help us take a big step forward in becoming a more sustainable organisation and achieving our goal of reducing 25% of our carbon emissions by 2025, and we are excited to support these innovative companies in further developing their solutions by providing them access to resources, network and knowledge”.
Jeroen van den Bosch, Unknown Group CCO said: “We’re proud to support SHV Energy on their road to becoming the go-to brand for venture collaborations in the domain of off-grid energy distribution. We are happy to see SHV Energy pursuing pilot projects with the three winners of the challenge and two more finalists”.
SHV Energy believes that these companies and their technologies have immense potential to help a wide variety of industries to reduce its emissions and is confident of their position to help these innovative companies with their development, go-to-market and expansion activities. Following the necessary planning period where milestones, deliverables and timelines are agreed upon, the pilot phase for the three startup winners with the relevant SHV Energy business units is expected to begin in Q1 2023.
Quotes from Challenge Winners
“A great and truly informative experience. We are honoured to have been able to participate in such an event, where a well-established corporation seeks to support innovations of potential hidden champions. We salute you and say many thanks.” -Christian Haier, Business Development Manager of Cleantech Swiss
“Gravity Climate is purpose-built to help organizations like SHV Energy manage and act on their carbon footprint. We’re thrilled to partner with the forward-thinking team at SHV to give them a birds-eye view of their carbon footprint and help them prioritize decarbonization paths to reach their ambitious climate goals.” – Saleh Elhattab, CEO at Gravity:
“A very well-organized pitching competition. This was a great way to get to know SHV Energy and its sustainable ambitions. We’re looking forward to making SHV Energy activities greener with onboard solar energy for their trucks while advancing our SolarOnTop technology with SHV Energy’s experience and knowledge.” – Martijn Ildiz, Co-founder and CEO of IM Efficiency.
About SHV Energy
SHV Energy is a leading global distributor of off-grid energy, such as LPG and LNG and is active in the area of sustainable fuels and renewable energy solutions. SHV Energy is a wholly owned subsidiary of SHV, a family-owned multinational, that consists of a group of specialised companies, including Nutreco, Eriks, One-Dyas, Kiwa, NPM Capital, Mammoet and Makro. SHV Energy global brands include Calor, Ipragaz, Liquigas, Primagaz, Supergas, Primagas, Supergasbras, Gaspol, SunSource, EM3, Pinnacle. With these companies, we make it our mission to provide decentralised, low-carbon and clean energy solutions to 30 million business and residential customers off the energy grid.