Oil and energy major Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Indian arm has launched the maiden edition of its pan-India accelerator programme for energy startups, a company statement said.
Christened Shell E4 (energising and enabling energy entrepreneurs), the programme will support early-stage, pilot or post-pilot stage startups in the energy space, the statement added.
“The Shell E4 Programme provides a platform for collaboration and conversation around valuable energy transitions, offering startups an opportunity to bring their ideas to life with Shell’s guidance and support,†said Nitin Prasad, chairman, Shell Companies in India.
Shell will select a cohort of startups for a period of six months and provide them with access to its technology and IT labs in Bengaluru, provide technical and commercial mentorship from within and outside the company, offer access to potential customers through its network of partners, and provide an investment of $20,000 per startup.
The company will run its accelerator programme in India out of the newly opened R&D centre, Shell Technology Centre Bengaluru (STCB), which is its third major global hub for technology and innovation.
The application for this accelerator programme, which opened on October 6 will conclude by November 17, post which the first cohort of startups will commence the programme from December 4 this year.
In a recent interaction with VCCircle in March this year, Yuri Sebregts, chief technology officer of Shell said that besides launching the startup accelerator programme, it will also make available its seed and venture capital (VC) investment arms for Indian startups in the clean-tech, mobility and energy efficiency solutions segments.
Globally, Shell has been making seed investments in startups through its mentoring initiative ‘GameChanger’ for two decades. Launched in 1998, the firm's VC arm Shell Technology Fund (STV) is the first corporate venture fund in the oil and gas industry. Shell typically makes seed investments of around $200,000. Shell’s venture investment arm is run by a team of 15 investment professionals.