The Netherlands, April 5. The New Energy Challenge is back for the seventh year running, offering European and Israeli founders opportunities to collaborate with Shell, ranging from proof of concepts (PoCs) and pilot projects to research & development (R&D) partnerships and more, based on their specific scaling needs.  

The New Energy Challenge is a competition for startups and scale-ups, jointly organized by Shell, Unknown Group, Rockstart, and YES!Delft. The competition is designed for founders in Europe and Israel who are contributing to a digital and carbon-neutral future. Since 2016, more than 600 startups and scale-ups have applied for this challenge.

From nature-based solutions (NBS) to carbon capture technologies, to digitalising the grid, finding clever ways to reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere is essential to limiting global warming by 2100, as decreed by the Paris Agreement. Capturing society’s carbon output is more than going carbon-neutral – it’s also about going “carbon-useful”. Recycling the carbon we produce into useful materials such as cement to build houses or plant-based burgers, these kinds of solutions can fulfill many of our everyday necessities. 

“We are extremely excited about this year’s New Energy Challenge”, said Hendrik Halbe, CEO of Unknown Group. “We believe that founders turn the world’s greatest challenges into opportunities.  With Unknown, our mission is to fuel founders and industry leaders to successfully bring innovations to the market. We hope this year will be a fantastic experience for all of those taking part in this competition!”

“After winning the NEC, Shell became both an investor and a client.” said Asperitas, one of the former winners of the New Energy Challenge. “This relationship is still strong, and that started with winning the challenge.”

Demand is expected to be high so founders wishing to explore collaboration opportunities with Shell and their Businesses should visit https://newenergychallenge.nl/ to apply before May 1st, 2022. .