Energy, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Funds, Good for Business, Lithuania

“Lietuvos Energija is seeking to create and implement until 2024 a solution allowing full automation of electricity distribution network inspection process which is currently performed during regular inspections by humans. Thanks to the possibility to inspect the network without human intervention, based on artificial intelligence solutions, it would be possible to save funds and ensure network maintenance of a higher quality,“ says Dominykas Tučkus, Lietuvos Energija Board Member and Director of Infrastructure and Development. 

Smart Energy Fund together with the international partners are investing in Sterblue the total amount of almost 1.8 mln euros (2 mln US dollars).

The Fund is investing together with the partners such as US The Westly Group, Innogy New Wentures and Portugees EDP Ventures. The investment of Lietuvos Energija Fund alone amounts to 265 thousand euros. This investment is a part of the open source investment program offered by the Innovation Hub that is established by Lietuvos energija. The hub seeks to attract ideas and partners to the innovation ecosystem of Lietuvos Energija.

“We are really happy to have these major and relevant investors onboard for our seed round. Their investment combined with their deep knowledge of the energy space is a great advantage for Sterblue. That will definitely accelerate our product enhancement and market deployment!” says Geoffrey Vancassel, Sterblue CEO.

Sterblue software guides drones along trajectories that wrap tightly around structures, find anomalies from the collected images and outputs reports. The whole process is automated and triggered by the click of a button using off-the-shelf drones, doubling productivity as compared to manual solutions, while improving reliability.

“Inspection of energy infrastructure in its current form is still rooted as a manual and ineffective process. We believe that experienced Sterblue team is primed to change and be a pioneer in fully automated UAV inspection of energy infrastructure, which will help asset owners like utility companies to be more responsive to incidents and cost-effective in maintenance. ” said Rokas Peciulaitis, Managing Partner at Contrarian Ventures.

The smart energy fund is one of the four directions of Lietuvos Energija Innovation Centre aimed to attract innovations and talents of the energy sector into the Group, boost the growth of energy start-ups business.

Smart Energy Fund powered by Lietuvos Energija, managed by Contrarian Ventures invests in start-ups that are developing new technologies in the energy field. The Fund also manages AcceleratorOne Acceleration Programme which together with Lietuvos Energija invests in start-ups and helps them grow. The programme tests pilot products and services in the local market, providing further opportunity to grow internationally. AcceleratorOne invites everyone to submit early-stage start-up applications for the 2018 programme in Vilnius Tech Park community.

Lietuvos Energija group is a state-controlled company group which is one of the largest in the Baltic States. The main activities of the Group include power and heat distribution and supply, natural gas trade and distribution as well as construction and maintenance of power plants and grid. The rights and obligations of the shareholder of Lietuvos Energija group are implemented by the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania.

With its more than 4000 employees, Lietuvos Energija group controls and operates key Lithuanian power plants ensuring the security of energy supply, nation-wide distribution network, and services more than 1.6 mln consumers across Lithuania, offers services of electricity supply to customers abroad as well as operates 8.5 thousand kilometres of distributor gas pipelines, supplies gas to more than 570 thousand customers, implements development projects of strategic significance and pursues the objectives of the National Energy Strategy.