In this episode, I’m joined by Ian Lee, Innovations Project Lead at UK Power Networks. He is building corporate partnerships with startups that are innovating in the energy sector and beyond.
Across this series we will be discussing the challenges around scaling deep tech solutions within climate. I’ll be speaking to Investors, Founders, Venture Builders and other key ecosystem players all focused on scaling and commercialising groundbreaking, deep tech innovations.
We will explore how to prepare for the challenges that deep tech companies often face around fundraising, scaling, team building and commercialisation; and we’ll hear from stories of those who have successfully scaled to Series A and beyond.
Home of Innovation - UKPN Innovation - [ Ссылка ]
EIC | Energy Innovation Centre - [ Ссылка ]
NIA : Network Innovation Allowance (RIIO-2) | Ofgem - [ Ссылка ]
SIF : Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) | Ofgem - [ Ссылка ]
Energy Innovation Summit 2024 - [ Ссылка ]
If the start-up has got a TRL 9 product and ready for the market and wishes to be a BAU solution provider, they can register themselves on the Achilles platform to advertise their services based on product codes - [ Ссылка ]
1:27 - What is your role at UK Power Networks and how does UKPN work with companies and projects?
3:45 - What was your career journey to get to UKPN?
6:57 - How does your engineering background help with what you do now?
9:55 - What types of technologies and startups are you interested in working with? What are you looking for?
13:58 - What technical readiness level (TRL) are you looking at to form a partnership?
21:07 - What is the market mix currently like, more hardware or software based options in terms of readiness?
24:40 - What do you see as the main blockers or bottlenecks that stop deep tech scaling quicker?
28:36 - Are founders sometimes too specialised and need to consider having someone onboard to move to commercialisation?
30:45 - What stage of funding are most companies at when they come to you?
32:05 - What does due diligence look like with UKPN?
36:08 - How deep do you dive on the technology and how well it might perform in a pilot?
38:30 - Are there gaps you’re seeing around types of founders or types of solution and technology that are not coming into the market?
46:24 - What are you looking forward to of the rest of the year?
48:28 - How can people get in touch with you and UKPN?
