What is KIC InnoEnergy?
KIC InnoEnergy is a European company whose objective is to stimulate the innovation and entrepreneurship in the energy and clean technologies sectors, which we consider a vital area for society.

In which areas do you act?
We start at the source of knowledge, universities, where we have Master’s and PhD programs in partnership with leading local universities across Europe. Then we have an open market approach phase in which we support the development of technologies and innovations through what we call innovation projects. Those are necessarily international projects, where the company that will be commercializing the technology supports the researcher and the product’s development until it reaches the market. At the end of this journey, we have the business creation area, where we support the development of startups through an acceleration program called KIC InnoEnergy Highway.

What are the differences between KIC InnoEnergy Highway and other programs?
This program is dedicated exclusively to the field of energy, and we invest seed capital in the projects in order to allow an initial project development. In addition, we have one very big focus: finding the first customer.

The European dimension of KIC is also an advantage…
Yes, the European dimension is quite fundamental in what we do. As is the focus on the energy issue, as is the focus on the first customer challenge – looking for a customer who will be willing to pay and leverage growth. I think the issue of seed capital is also interesting: we operate at a stage where we can fund projects that venture capital don’t consider yet.

How do you do it?
We work with the developer and with a network of mentors who regularly work with developers to come up with a map of activities, with clearly identified goals and the necessary steps to achieve them. Therefore, what we do is directly fund the resources needed to allow these activities to happen, in a very gradual manner.

In Portugal you started supporting companies in 2014…
Actually, support was already available through our office in Spain, which also had the mission to cover Portugal, although not as its main focus. We started working with RVE.Sol and ISGreen in 2014, ProDrone came along that year as well.

Today you’re supporting four startups.
Yes, with IonSeed. Unfortunately none from Técnico, yet.

Is it easy to be an entrepreneur in the energy and clean technologies field?
It’s not easy to be an entrepreneur in any field, but the traditional scenery where energy is only dealt with by large companies is increasingly rare. The problem is huge and the small technological disruptions that will appear in different areas are the ones that will be helping us evolve in the right direction. For example, it’s very complicated to think of a new way of extracting renewable energy, but as they are relatively new industries and technologies, there’s a lot that can be done to increase their competitiveness.

The innovation that KIC is looking for since its creation can’t, therefore, dissociate from entrepreneurship?
Large companies are an unquestionably important part of the puzzle, but they are not the only parts. Maybe we need to strengthen the skills of another kind of entrepreneur, independent, more agile – to complement the work that large companies do and thus win this tremendous challenge.

What are the perspectives for the future of KIC in Portugal?
We want to start having a more visible impact because we started in 2012 and this is a business that takes its time to rise: there are still many people and entrepreneurs who haven’t heard of us yet