In 2015, EIT InnoEnergy, a sustainable energy accelerator based in Europe, organized a business trip. The team wanted to learn from other innovation ecosystems—from universities and accelerators to investors and corporate labs—as inspiration, as well as see where EIT InnoEnergy might fit in.
Five years later, following an international search and a partnership for a "U.S. landing program" with clean energy incubator consortium Incubatenergy, EIT InnoEnergy is setting up shop in Greater Boston.
The accelerator plans to have its U.S. hub in Greentown Labs, the Somerville-based cleantech incubator. There, EIT InnoEnergy will keep a core team of connectors and investors to get local energy entrepreneurs access to funding, advising services and support for industrialization.
"Let’s imagine that one venture knocks at our door at our Boston office," Elena Bou, EIT InnoEnergy's innovation director and an executive board member, said in an email to BostInno. "In 95% of cases, this venture will tell us that they need money but at that moment we will ask: what for? Then we will start a business discussion about the status of their business and what are the milestones they need to achieve to get a certain number of sales, certain valuation or even become a unicorn. This is the starting point."
The next step: If EIT InnoEnergy likes the business, the team will create a "roadmap" for the venture. The accelerator positions the Greentown Labs office as an entry point into its network worldwide. It has 10 offices in Europe with more than 300 team members, all of whom Boston-area startups would have access to.
The Somerville office is just the beginning of EIT InnoEnergy's expansion into the U.S. As a partner of Greentown Labs, the accelerator will soon have access to the startups that will be incubated at Greentown Houston, slated to open in spring 2021. Bou said that team will be making investments elsewhere, too: EIT InnoEnergy has studied more than 56 U.S. investment opportunities coming from different states.
And as one of the cleantech capitals of the U.S., Greater Boston is a powerful springboard.
"The Boston area showed great potential because of its vivid entrepreneurial ecosystem which gathers all the actors of the innovation value chain including top universities and top talent," Bou said. "It also excels as a cleantech hub with a relevant investment muscle, regulation that supports cleantech initiatives and it is a launchpad to access the wider energy market."
