From swappable batteries in Indonesia to decarbonizing New York’s legacy buildings, clean energy entrepreneurs around the world are helping fix our planet and make energy more accessible.
Read on to discover 6 entrepreneurs in our portfolio that are setting the benchmark for impact and innovation.
”New Energy Nexus and The Clean Fight positively impacted Radiator Labs’ growth by way of supportive programming and high-level corporate and investor introductions.” Marshall Cox, CEO of Radiator Labs
The Radiator Labs system provides room level temperature control and eliminates overheating in radiator-heated buildings. Their innovative ‘Cozy’ is a revolution in radiator heating, saving up to 45% on heating costs and their installations are 100% financeable through subsequent energy savings.
NEX’s New York program, The Clean Fight awarded Radiator Labs with a financing grant of US$150,000 to expand their team and two pilot grants of US$97,000 & US$150,000 to support a hybrid electrification and an energy efficiency project.
In 2021 Radiator Labs completed 15 projects installing approximately 3,500 units, mitigating approximately 1,800 tons of carbon annually.
Takachar is on a mission to fight climate change by transforming massive amounts of waste biomass into marketable products around the world.
Around US$120 billion of agricultural waste is generated every year. The burning of agricultural waste causes air pollution impacting human health and the global atmosphere. Using a novel concept called oxygen-lean torrefaction, Takachar has developed and patented the design of a small-scale, low-cost, portable equipment to convert waste biomass into solid fuel, fertilizer, and other specialty chemicals. If scaled, Takachar’s technology could reduce smoke emissions from agricultural waste by up to 98% and cut a billion tons of carbon dioxide a year.
NEX’s California programs, CalSEED & CalTestBed awarded a US$600,000 grant in non-dilutive funding and a voucher of ~$260,000 respectively, to conduct prototype testing at UC Santa Barbara’s Renewable Natural Gas Development Laboratory.
“If scaled widely, the Takachar technology can enable rural communities to create significantly more value from their un-merchantable crop and forest residues, thereby reducing the risks of wildfires, air pollution, and carbon footprint.” Kevin Kung, Founder and CTO
*Photo is of Vidyut Mohan, CEO and Co-Founder of Takachar.
“When questioning myself about why I am here, I find the answer in promoting social progress and making the world a better place are aligned with New Energy Nexus’ mission.” Felix Wu, CEO and Founder, Seniverse
Seniverse is a big data company, leveraging satellite data, AI, machine learning and IoT to deliver asset-level physical risk predictions on a computing platform. Seniverse’s technology predicts average power consumption with 3.02% greater accuracy, which both lowers the cost, and increases generation, of solar and wind power.
Seniverse is a member of New Energy Nexus’ second EXCEL Accelerator cohort. During the program, NEX provided deep-dive workshops with leading corporations, one-on-one interviews with business units, connected Seniverse with investors and recommended them for various international awards.
Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement is an off-grid community hosting over 65,000 people from countries bordering Uganda. The majority of the households rely on firewood for cooking, kerosene for lighting and drink unsafe water. Children’s Hope International Ministry is a community-based organization (CBO) extending psychosocial support to children and women and increasing energy access by distributing and selling clean energy products in the settlement.
The organization has reached over 100 households and hopes to expand and create awareness of clean energy products, especially cookstoves and solar lanterns. It has also earned revenue from the profits to run more activities. NEX introduced the CBO to the clean energy business model, provided training to increase sales and run a business. We also offered stock capital to start the business as the CBO had no funds or collateral to present to banks to access financial assistance.
“Clean energy products reduce stress on environmental resources. I hope that our work can help the community appreciate the importance of the cookstoves, briquettes and solar lanterns so they can become self-appointed ambassadors and users.” Deacon Rwemigio Raphael, Founder and Director of Children’s Hope International Ministry
“I have been in the renewable sector for six years. But the amount of knowledge or confidence I am getting after being associated with [this program] is something beyond my expectations. The most amazing part is that all the mentors try their best to associate us with various opportunities that comes along the way. Thanks.. for giving [me] this opportunity to grow…” Saikrishna Mohanty, Founder & Managing Partner, Solar Infra
Solar Infra specializes in solar installation, project works, assembling, and supplying solar products. Solar Infra has installed more than 2.5MW of solar products. Their household products use brushless DC motors which lower electricity consumption. Through all the solar products installed and sold, Solar Infra has reduced ~1.8 tons of GHG emissions. Their solar products such as solar sewing machine, incense machine, solar-operated drip irrigation for farmers, and rope making machines have provided livelihood opportunities for more than 700 households.
Solar Infra is a part of NEX’s Climate Ready for Women in Energy program (in partnership with Climate Collective) which has provided business literacy skills, support on their pitch deck for investors and mentorship support to launch new livelihood products.
The two biggest problems with e-motorcycles, a potentially massive mode of transport in Indonesia, are perceptions about their range and the longer time it takes to charge. SWAP is city-based infrastructure of battery swapping stations for e-motorcycle riders. No more cords, no more hassle, battery is being swapped with a fully-charged battery within 9 seconds.
SWAP has 350+ units of e-motorcycles on the road, 250+ battery swapping stations deployed, 440,000+ cumulative kilometers driven, 37 tons of total CO2e reduced, and a charging station network in four cities.
NEX introduced SWAP to potential investors, supported the SWAP team to prepare funding documents, how to calculate their GHG reduction and offered mentoring services to help them develop their business management skills.
“Nexus has motivated SWAP to focus on the single thing that mattered – build something impactful for the new era of energy.”
Kevin Phang, Co-founder of Swap Energi Indonesia
