PortXL would like to recap some amazing projects and news from our Alumni. The 2022 autumn is full of innovations and exciting investments. We are proud of to see these companies constantly grow.
€5M ENERGIQ Investment in Fibersail
Fibersail (PortXL ’16) is under the spotlight. InnovationQuarter’s ENERGIQ fund officially announced that they are investing €5 million in real-time blade monitoring.
They have developed a shape sensor that can be applied to all types of wind blades and is easy to install. This increases the reliability and productivity of wind turbines and wind farms, as well as their service life. Over time, Fibersail plans to transition to control and predictive maintenance model that will enable energy performance strategies and estimation of turbine maintenance needs.
Pedro Pinto, co-founder, and CEO, has spent his entire life understanding how to generate the best energy performance by using wind power. During his first years of Fibersail, he was amazed by the lack of information regarding the conditions and operations of wind turbine blades and the multi-billion euro cost it was generating every year. Now, together with his team of deep- and Greentech investors Fibersail is disrupting the way these wind turbines are controlled and maintained.
Explect updates
In 2015, the brothers Martijn (centre) and Bart de Ruiter (right) started Explect, the 1st digital forwarder in the Netherlands. The first office on Havendam in Oud-Beijerland was a small back room that just fit two desks and had internet access. The latter seems like a no-brainer, but digitization was -and is- hardly present in the world of the expedition.
What started with a simple online application form to help new and existing customers faster, grew into software that was built in-house. The idea was simple: unburden customers through digitization with a personal touch. Thanks to this online platform, Explect was able to grow stronger every year.
From a start-up by the de Ruiter brothers, later supplemented by Pim Verhage (left) as 3rd partner, Explect has grown into a mature digital forwarder and started with a platform with which other companies can digitize their expedition, a great adventure.
But like most adventures, sometimes you come at a crossroads where you have to choose which way to go. Explect is now well past the pioneering phase. It became clear to Martijn that his heart lies in digitizing sectors that still have a lot to gain.
Martijn has therefore decided in good consultation to say goodbye and to use his knowledge in the digitization of other sectors. The other board members, Bart de Ruiter and Pim Verhage, will continue the company together.
Together the trio has led Explect to become a multi-million dollar company with a team of 14 employees. There are more than 2000 users within the digital platform, more than 6500 companies are connected and this growth is expected to continue quickly. Explect and Digimentr look to the future with confidence and expect to be able to continue their success with this enthusiastic team.
Reefy Block production
Reefy (PortXL ’21) has a tremendous update. They are making the first round of full-scale production of the Reefy Block.
These mega-sized reef modules are hydrodynamically designed, tested, and patented to protect shorelines from hurricane waves while providing a foundation for complex habitats and thriving marine life increase.
Through a variety of surface textures and shapes, the blocks encourage the settlement of marine life and create living breakwaters that can grow with rising sea levels to promote biodiversity.
HelioRec Opens Seed Funding Round
HelioRec (PortXL ’21) has opened a seed funding round, whose proceeds will be used to further advance its floating solar technology and business.
The seed round, targeting an undisclosed amount, will support HelioRec’s team in achieving its next milestone – proving the company’s floating solar technology at scale.
According to HelioRec, the collected funding from the round will be mainly used for the expansion of the manufacturing line, product certification, and intellectual property protection.
Also, part of the funding will be directed towards the development of software as a service (SaaS) capabilities, as well as for marketing and sales.
Polina Vasilenko, founder and CEO, said: “HelioRec is looking for strategic and cleantech-oriented investors who can support us with the technology and commercial development toward clean and affordable energy for near-shore locations where half of the population lives.”
HelioRec has developed a floating solar system, whose compact design makes it easy to transport and set up. It is also accompanied by a machine learning system that helps to improve efficiency in power generation operations and maintenance efforts, according to the company.
Early in 2022, HelioRec installed a 10kW floating solar pilot plant in the Port of Oostende in Belgium (pictured), in collaboration with Greenpipe International, as part of the EU-funded DUAL Ports initiative.
Fregata Space wins the InnovaSummit 2022
Catalan company Fregata Space (PortXL ’21) has won the ‘InnovaSummit 2022′ in Chile from over 100 international candidates in the field of sustainability and energy. According to a statement from the Ministry of Economy and Labor of Generalitat, which supports the project through the Competitiveness Agency Acció, this is the most important innovation race on sustainability in Latin America.
Fregata Space has developed an earth observation platform that uses “machine learning” based algorithms applied to satellite imagery to detect air and water pollution. The platform aims to discover pollution on Earth, identify the nature of polluting elements in space, and “verify that a particular solution, once applied, is effective.”.
Fregata Space is undertaking two rounds of investment totaling €20 million to complete an air and water quality monitoring solution across Latin America in two years. María Fernanda González, CEO and founder of Fregata Space, said the event’s judges “appreciated the ambition of highly scalable projects, provided global and sustainable solutions, and It made it possible to combine the
Founded in Barcelona in 2020, the company with its 11 employees has projects in Europe, Japan, Colombia, Chile, Peru, and other Latin American countries.