Shell E4 plans to engage with 25-30 Indian start-ups annually from 2022

Energy company Shell India is planning to engage with 25-30 start-ups every year from 2022 onwards through its E4 Programme to help them scale their business, according to a senior company official.

Shell, under its flagship E4 Programme, incubates and supports start-ups via various modules of linking talent, technology, capital and know-how to accelerate India's transition to a sustainable energy future.

The company in the last three years has been able to engage with 30 start-ups and supported them with investments and mentoring at Shell campus located in India.

"We have 30 start-ups now that have come through the E4 program and we're in the process of adding 10 to 12 more that'll start the program in January. We're planning on ramping the program to 25 to 30 annually.

"So, the first couple of years have been a slow ramp to get there and now we're at that run rate where we expect 25 to 30 annually," Shell E4 Programme, general manager, James Unterreiner told PTI.

Shell directly provides $20,000 to each of the start-ups selected under the program and facilitates additional funding through partners besides training the start-ups to fine-tune their solution to make them commercially viable.

"We bring not just Shell's capabilities, but all these partners" capabilities to enhance that package and make it really rich and deep for them and then lastly offer them USD 20,000. Our ask in return for that is USD 200,000 with equity in their company and that ask is primarily to ensure that we're working with committed start-ups," Unterreiner said.

The company started an accelerator program with focus on energy but has diversified engagement in the field of mobility solutions, energy IOT applications, digital logistics, clean technology etc.

"We recognize that energy start-ups take longer to mature than maybe an IT start-up or something like that. We built a program to accommodate that... The idea is to make them commercially viable where they can engage with investors and corporates," Unterreiner said.