Blue Lake is not a typical London based early-stage VC company. Much of what we do revolves around helping to bridge the gap between early-stage startups and the corporate world, including creating supporting our partner's corporate innovation projects.
Therefore, we are delighted to support the Innovation DTEK Great Great Britain Sprint, helping to track technological trends, scouting and implementing cutting edge solutions into DTEK Businesses.
Applications are now open to all qualifying UK and European Startups and SME's
About DTEK
DTEK is the leading and largest private investor in Ukraine's energy sector. DTEK's activities extend to coal and natural gas extraction, renewable energy, energy trading, supplying electricity to consumers, and developing high-speed charging station networks.
Innovation DTEK team, consists of 14 Innovation Managers and Chief Innovation Officer Emanuele Volpe, serves as a link between the innovation ecosystem participants and the Businesses:
DTEK Energy
DTEK Renewables
DTEK Oil&Gas
DTEK Grids
D.Trading
Academy DTEK
Innovation Managers support Applicants to pilot their innovative solutions in the Businesses and scale the best ones. Since 2018, the Innovation DTEK team has launched 37 pilot projects and scaled 9 of them within the Businesses.
Ready To Sprint ?
Innovation DTEK London Sprint is a unique, fast track programme welcoming UK startups ready to pilot their solutions with a major European enterprise. While DTEK's core business is within the energy sector, Sprint covers a wide range of challenges that the company is looking to address, including but not limited to renewable energy production, management and storage, XR/VR/AR education technology and hydrogen technology
This is an excellent opportunity for a UK based startups to pilot their solutions with a major European client. More details on the types of solutions that we are looking for are below. Any questions, feel free to contact us. Applicants, while not expected to move physically, should be prepared to work internationally with Ukraine located Businesses.
To apply please fill the application form here. We are looking to onboard three new solutions; applications will be reviewed on a first-come, first-serve basis.
What Are We Looking For?
Solutions to increase safety, environmental friendliness, and efficiency
3D printing,
AI, blockchain
IoT, drones
Exoskeletons,
Robotics,
XR (AR/MR/VR) and
Wearable solutions for energy industry
Solutions for decarbonisation
Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS)
Energy storage solutions
Grid scale long duration energy storage systems
Residential battery storage systems
Energy management system software
Hydrogen solutions
Solutions for production of carbon neutral hydrogen and hydrogen system components
Green hydrogen usage in steel production process
Methanol production and municipal mobility
Energy industry (grid balancing, power generation and energy storage)
Smart energy solutions
Solutions for grid flexibility
Energy management systems for distributed energy resources (DER)
Electrical vehicles (EV) smart charging
Vehicle to grid (V2G) solutions
About the Process
What happens to the innovative solution after its application through the form?
Applicant is the team that applies their innovative solution or product within Innovation DTEK activities in London.
Step 1. Each application is reviewed for the following criteria:
· Does the innovative solution fall within the scope of DTEK's interests?
· Is the solution ready to be implemented in real business in Ukraine?
· Is it possible to pilot the solution in a short-term perspective?
· What are the potential benefits of cooperation?
Step 2. Blue Lake team holds personal meetings with the teams that applied their innovative solutions which meet the above criteria.
Step 3. All applications that meet the above criteria are reviewed jointly by Innovation DTEK and Businesses to clarify details, technical requirements on existing infrastructure and so on (NDA is signed if necessary). DTEK determines the feasibility of implementing the solution into the Business.
Step 4. All solutions that are pre-approved by Innovation DTEK team and supported by Businesses are issued in the form of one-pager and are subject to approval by the CEO of the Businesses and Chief Innovation Officer. At this stage, the applicants might be invited to pitch their solutions in Innovation DTEK outpost office in London (travelling to Ukraine at this stage is not needed).
Step 5. Innovation DTEK, the Business and Applicant prepare for piloting the innovative solution: defining the success criteria/KPIs for the pilot project, collecting and checking statutory documents, concluding a contract, planning and conducting a pilot.
Step 6. Evaluation of the results obtained and making a recommendation on the possibility of further scaling.