Major foundation partners with Aarhus entrepreneurial community to support new energy startups

The Vissing Foundation has partnered with Aarhus University and the university’s entrepreneurial environment The Kitchen to support early-stage energy companies. The goal is to find and support startups that develop technologies and solutions that can reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

The Kitchen will be a central link in the effort and, together with the University of Copenhagen’s KU Lighthouse and DTU Skylab, will recommend qualified projects to the foundation. The Vissing Foundation will then evaluate the proposals four times a year and award funds to the most promising initiatives.

“The collaboration with the Vissing Foundation is positive and promising because it’s so important for start-ups to receive support very early in the development of their idea. We need the good ideas to become successful companies, and the collaboration contributes to that,” says Jeppe Dørup Olesen, Head of the Kitchen at Aarhus University.

From idea to practice

In particular, the funding will help startups that are in the transition between the idea and concept stage and the phase where the technology can be tested and demonstrated in practice. The funds can be used to test and commercialize solutions in areas such as energy storage or carbon capture.

With this collaboration, the Vissing Foundation wants to strengthen Aarhus’ role as a center for energy-innovative startups and help new ideas from the research environments to become companies with commercial potential.

“Future energy companies – like Vestas or Eurowind Energy – don’t appear out of the blue. They are developed over many years and need support from small to large. We can help make a positive difference by supporting the small start-ups that often emerge from universities. That’s why we are very much looking forward to a new collaboration,” says Hans-Henrik Eriksen, Chairman of the Board of the Vissing Foundation.