💨 On creating a new class of clean energy
Founders Factory Startup Bulletin #45
This is the Startup Bulletin—written for founders, by founders. Each month we bring you a round-up of startup and investment stories, key learnings from founders, and insights from the Founders Factory team.
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It was the Egyptians, over five thousand years ago, who first recognised the potential to harness the power of wind and use it to power ships travelling down the Nile.
Since then, wind—our most abundant source of energy—has been used for manufacturing, agriculture, and more recently, to generate electricity. And now, we’re seeing the advent of a new class of clean energy—using wind to power the production of hydrogen. This is the simple but powerful offering behind DRIFT Energy.
In this month’s Startup Bulletin, DRIFT CEO & founder Ben Medland shared some of his most valuable lessons so far from building at the intersection of ocean and energy. Also in today’s newsletter:
Our recommended reading list
Highlights from our global portfolio
Top opportunities in tech
⛵️ DRIFT’s Ben Medland: On creating a new class of clean energy
There was a surprising source of inspiration for DRIFT Energy—founder Ben’s son, who asked, “Why can’t we create wind farms that follow the wind?” The result is a new class of portable renewable energy, a wind-powered sailing vessel that harnesses wind to generate clean hydrogen.
As he looks to scale DRIFT and put designs into construction, here are some of the lessons Ben’s learned along the way.
1. Use existing technology where possible
Once we had our central hypothesis—what if a sailing vessel could generate energy—I had to inquire about what it would take to actually build this.
Fortunately, operating in the sailing and maritime industry, innovation has really advanced over the last decade, meaning that a large proportion of the equipment and technology we would require already existed. The materials, a lot of the machinery, even the turbines for capturing the wind, we could all largely buy off the shelf. This made constructing the ‘hardware’ aspect of the business relatively straightforward.
The ‘software’ demanded more ingenuity and innovation. Our hypothesis, for a boat that could follow the wind, led us to an algorithm that could autonomously direct the vessel to optimal conditions. We’ve dubbed this the ‘Goldilocks Algorithm’, taking us to where the wind is ‘just right’.
2. Your product roadmap should be guided by an overarching mission
For DRIFT, this mantra is ‘anything that makes the boat go greener’.
This came from a decision that, if we’re going to be creating a new class of renewable energy, we might as well make it a good one.
This mantra really guides every decision we make. This means making the vessel lighter, more streamlined, faster, so that it can generate energy more efficiently. It means choosing the right materials, that are sustainable or circular, where possible.
As a sailing ship, there are no diesel engines: and now, pending approval, I have a vision that we’ll have no fossil fuels on board.
3. Understand your target market
Working in the energy sector, it’s really important to consider who you are generating energy for. Given that we are creating a new class of energy, we had the opportunity to meet the demands of some of the most underserved communities when it comes to reliable, clean energy.
Operating in the maritime sector, I started meeting island or coastal communities in developing countries, who had scarce access to this sort of power. These communities already import their energy via ship—so why couldn’t we do the same for them, with clean energy?
Step one is ensuring that these fringe communities are not left behind in the energy transition. The next step is potentially even more exciting—creating the opportunity for these largely-maritime nations to become net-exporters of renewable energy.
4. Translate it for investors
Ingenuity is a great thing in climate and deep tech—but it can also be off-putting. Investors look for precedent, for things that already exist, for proven successes.
So when I’m speaking with investors, I try to keep it simple. I tell them it’s a sailing vessel, and we’ve had those for years. That we already have boats powered by hydrogen, we’ve just simply taken that and engineered it in reverse. So basically, everything we’re doing has been done in aggregate, we’re just the first to engineer it all together.
I also stress that this is really a technology of now. That what we’re doing wouldn’t have been possible ten years ago; but that sophisticated shipping technology, clean energy demand, and advancements in AI all demonstrate that this is a product of today.
📚 What we’ve been reading this month
2024: The State of Generative AI in the Enterprise (Menlo Ventures)
The great carbon clear-up (Founders Factory)
How the far right is weaponising AI-generated content in Europe (The Guardian)
🚀 Highlights from Founders Factory & our global portfolio
Tembo announced £14M in Series B funding, as they build out their mortgage platform maximising affordability for buyers & remortgagers
Calvin Risk announced their $4M seed round, as they build out their platform helping companies analyse real-time insights into their AI portfolio, and potential risks
Scan.com were named in Deloitte’s Fast 50, ranking eleventh among the UK’s fastest growing businesses
Ogma announced their approval for use in the NHS as part of the UK government’s rigorous G-Cloud 14 procurement framework, making it the first AI-powered tool for speech and language therapists to receive ‘official recommendation’
AutoConnexa launched their crowdfunding campaign on Doorway, as they’re looking to transform motor insurance through IoT and telematics technology
Chiron Health closed their first funding round led by SFC Capital. They’re developing a new data-driven self-care pathway designed to sit alongside medical care
Opportunities
💼 Roles
We’re hiring a number of EIR roles for our Venture Studio, offering the chance to lead the vision and build of new concepts we’re developing. These include:
Founder & CEO at Tetto—LLM-powered home insurance. Read more here
Founder & CEO at Delorean—agentic infrastructure for insurance. Read more here
We’re also hiring to join our Operations team:
Partnerships Lead (Singapore)—a chance to join our newly-launched Singapore operations hub. Read more here
You can see all our open roles here
📆 Events
Women in Fintech Pub Quiz (December 5th, Central London)—a great chance to meet (and quiz) alongside some of the best and brightest in the industry. We’re particularly keen to welcome founders and investors. Apply to attend here
See you next month 👋
Interested in reading more of the same insights? Check out the Founders Factory blog, and previous newsletters.