The final of the EDP Open Innovation Programme was held yesterday in Central Tejo, which elected Rated Power as the big winner from amongst 14 start-ups. In addition to Rated Power, two other companies were selected to attend the Web Summit.

EDP Open Innovation is a start-ups acceleration program, which aims to support technology-driven entrepreneurship with a focus on energy and its multiple variants, including big data, internet of things (IoT), machine learning, data analytics. Last year, it extended its universe of operation to Brazil and Spain.

Following the reception of more than 363 applications from Brazil, Spain, France and Portugal, the 14 finalist start-ups were on stage yesterday with a pitch to try to convince the jury that their project should be the big winner. The winner of the € 50,000 grand prize was Rated Power, a Spanish start-up that introduced an innovative concept of efficient planning for solar power plants.

On the entrepreneurship podium, two more start-ups were also awarded with six months of incubation at EDP Starter and with guaranteed access to the Web Summit, where they will display their projects on the EDP stand. In second place is Cosol, which wants to contribute to the creation of an online renewable energy distribution market. Invoice Capture was third, and presented an IT solution that is based on a digital financial collection tool that automatically handles all payment-related processes while providing real-time analysis and prediction of cash flows.

These three companies will join the ten start-ups already confirmed for the Web Summit and that were selected by EDP from among the 19 that are currently included in EDP Starter. They are: Black Block, Agroop, BeOn, EGG, Glartek, Ionseed, Pro-Drone, Sentimer, Nesto and Delphi (Winner of EDP Open Innovation in 2016), with business focused on big data, IoT, energy efficiency, solar energy, storage and distribution of Energy. These start-ups will be part of the ALPHA Web Summit programme and will have access to an exhibition area, mentoring, workshops, participation in round tables and contact with investors.