Springboard to success for student startup company

MeshPower, an electronics design and development startup formed at Imperial in 2012 has won the regional finals of the Shell Springboard award.

The company has been awarded £40,000 by Shell to help develop their innovative low carbon business ideas, winning a place in the national final of the prestigious Shell Springboard awards.

MeshPower were named joint regional winners at the event in Manchester. The dynamic start-ups impressed the judges with their technologies – MeshPower has developed mini renewable-powered electricity grids to provide affordable energy in the developing world.

Meshpower will now take part in the national final in London, going head to head with other regional winners from the Oxford and Edinburgh heats.

MeshPower aims to do social good through enterprise, and are developing an innovative rural electrification solution using the latest mobile and internet technologies. The project is the result of collaboration between several alumni of Imperial College's student non-profit organisation e.quinox, as well as former Google early employee and angel investor Gerald Aigner.

The Shell Springboard programme is a nationwide search for the next breakthrough in low carbon enterprise, part of a strategy of collaborating externally to fast track solutions to the energy challenge.

John MacArthur, Vice President of Gas Technology at Shell, added “Shell Springboard is a celebration of the small companies that are seizing the twin opportunities of the low carbon sector – addressing the future of energy challenge and contributing to the economic competitiveness of the UK. MeshPower and Sentec embody this idea with their innovative technologies, and I wish the companies the very best of luck in the national final.”