Global energy and electricity provider Iberdrola announced today the launch of Perseo Venture Builder, allocating €40 million towards the creation of innovative industrial companies engaged in new electrification areas and in difficult-to-decarbonise sectors such as industry and heavy transport.

The new fund forms part of Iberdrola’s Perseo Programme, which has to date invested €70 million in startups that develop technologies and innovative business models, since launching ten years ago.

Agustín Delgado, Director of Innovation, Sustainability and Quality at Iberdrola, said;

“In the past decade we have focused on forming alliances with start-ups with an open innovation strategy, which has made us quick to identify future trends in our industry while giving us access to disruptive technologies and business models. The experience and results have been extraordinary. With this new initiative we complete our approach, promoting the creation and acceleration of innovative industries and a supply chain that will mark the energy development and jobs of the future, and harnessing our knowledge of innovation and technology in key businesses to electrify the economy.”

According to Iberdrola, Perseo Venture Builder’s near-term focus will be on the development of six or seven lines of action over the next five years, aiming to stimulate industrial hubs with interesting potential for growth and to drive economic recovery and social development. Initial projects will focus on areas including recycling of blades, modules and batteries, and technologies related to industrial heat, battery manufacturing and the decarbonisation of long-haul transport.

The venture’s first investment is Iberlyzer, an initiative carried out in collaboration with Basque company Ingeteam, destined to become the first large-scale electrolyser manufacturer in Spain, for the production of green hydrogen.