EIT InnoEnergy is on a mission: to contribute to a more sustainable world fostering the energy transition. This has been our ’why’ since our foundation in 2010. EIT InnoEnergy is the leading sustainable energy innovation engine. We are built on four layers: people, start-ups, industrial value chains and the ecosystem. The interconnection of these layers makes synergies and innovation happen.
Education is at the core of our innovation system. Our graduates not only have an excellent technological background, but also entrepreneurial skills that equip them to become game-changers. Today we have more than 1,600+ graduates working in leading companies around the world. We define them as our secret weapon, as these young professionals are changing the culture of companies from the inside out.
Our second layer: accelerating and de-risking solutions and business cases by creating and supporting companies. Today we have one of the largest sustainable energy investment portfolios worldwide, with more than 200 investee companies, most of which are launching hardware solutions (70%). We invest in opportunities that make a big impact, and this goes hand in hand with industrial development. In addition, 85% of our companies are exporting so we are looking for solutions that are highly scalable. As investors, we provide value in exchange for equity. This means that we provide cash plus intangibles to make the business case bigger, sooner and safer. We bring together knowledge and experience wherever it is located. Through our ecosystem we reduce time to market, de-risk innovation and create commercially attractive solutions to empower a sustainable energy future.
EIT InnoEnergy is spearheading the decarbonisation of Europe by leading industrial alliances in three strategic sectors: battery storage, green hydrogen and solar photovoltaics. These alliances bring together the knowledge and experience required to develop strategic value chains. This is: (-) Creating an ad hoc ecosystem with stakeholders from across the value chain (-) Increasing the capacity to support large industrial projects (-)Filling the gaps of the existing value chain by fostering the required funding, skills and talent. These projects directly impact the energy trilemma: reducing the cost of energy, limiting greenhouse gas emissions, and increasing availability and security, all within Europe. Ultimately, these actions play a fundamental role in realising our goal of a carbon neutral Europe by 2050, as the impact is massive due to its scalability.
The last layer is the ecosystem, which allows us to support companies by bringing together stakeholders from education, research, industry and investor communities. For the last 10 years, EIT InnoEnergy has been able to create a trusted innovation ecosystem in sustainable energy, which is the first and only open innovation ecosystem managed by a private company. Today, the ecosystem is formed by more than 1,200+ partners from the US, Europe and Asia and has a high level of diversity in terms of cultures, backgrounds and type of organisations.
