05 Jun 2019

Corporate and startup collaboration is important for the environment

Ignite Sweden arrangerade Ignite EnergyConfusion matchmaking under konferensen Energy ConFusion, där startups fick möjlighet att möta storbolag i Skellefteå.

On June 3-5 Skellefteå hosted Energy ConFusion which is a mix of conference, event, exhibition and matchmaking focusing on energy storage and energy solutions. Ignite Sweden, together with North Sweden Cleantech, Uminova Innovation, Bizmaker and Arctic Business Incubator arranged Ignite Energy ConFusion where startups had the opportunity to meet corporations from Sweden and Finland. Ignite Sweden is a national program that aims to boost cooperation between corporations and startups.

The corporates that participated in the matchmaking event were ABB, Skellefteå Kraft, Umeå Energi, E.ON, FLIR, Övik Energi and Vasa Elektriska. The companies were there to bring in new business ideas from startups to solve their future challenges. On Tuesday, 45 different meetings took place between large companies and a total of 18 startups from Finland, Estonia and Sweden.

Johan Granström from ABB and Ann-Christine Schmidt from Skellefteå Kraft met startups during the event.

- I think it has been a very interesting day with many interesting startups. There are many who want to cooperate with us and this is an important part of our future, to meet common challenges. Today I have met eight startups and a couple of them I take further contact with. It was also fun to meet companies from Sweden, Finland and Estonia. Established companies such as ABB have a great responsibility to contribute to the climate change mitigation and we must strive to achieve major goals and cooperate with startups and other companies, says Johan Granström, project manager at ABB's office in Umeå.

- I wish there were more events like this one where large companies can meet startups. It is important not only to focus on business when we meet them, but also to allow startups to enter earlier in the process, says Ann-Christine Schmidt, coordinator for FUI at Skellefteå Kraft.

 

Participating startups:

SCMTGROUP AB

Comsel System Ab (Finland)

Eco-Oil Miljöbränslen i Sverige AB

Elastisys

Fluid Intelligence Oy (Finland)

Gambit (Finland)

Gemit Solutions

Hepta Airborne (Estonia)

Jukolux Oy (Finland)

Linqit (Finland)

Liqway AB

Nordic Quick Systems AB

OAZER AB

RenBloc

Service Node AB

Smart Climate Scandinavian AB

Sol-ionics AB

WideFind

 

On photo: Ann-Christine Schmidt from Skellefteå Kraft and Johan Granström from ABB met startups during Energy ConFusion in Skellefteå.

 

Text and photo: Nina Rismalm, Uminova Innovation