From idea to project. From project to life. Our consulting process with our clients is very simple and straightforward: we make the best of our knowledge and use our best tools to build their custom IoT applications from end-to-end.
Starting in February 2014, the project was born from the dream of bringing together the scientific world to the industry.
The ability to apply the skills and innovative technologies that are being developed by researchers with extensive experience was a must. With the participation in iUP25K, the i.nanoE project began.
The i.nanoE project reached the finals of the iUP25k business idea competition in May 2014. With the formulation of the idea and the business plan, the project was awarded two grants from IAPMEI entrepreneurship allowing the founders to start a technological development. Since then many advances were made in the development of the first prototypes, creating partnerships and exposure of the project. Within one year of existence, i.nanoE was already a finalist in two entrepreneurship contests, the iUP25k and IDEup, obtained two grants to support entrepreneurship, made several scientific presentations at international conferences ANM 2014 and EDNANO 2014 and developed the first functional prototypes already with an applicable possibility.
In 2015 i.nanoE participated in the UPTEC School of Startups (April to September), which allowed us to learn more about management, finance and pitch techniques, and opened the doors to new investors and partnerships. In May 2015 we also participated in the ClimateLaunchpad, the Europe’s largest cleantech business idea competition, in which we reached the national finals. Finally, in December 2015 we created the Startup InanoEnergy – Consulting, Design, Production and Application of Renewable Energy Solutions Ltd., and incubated in UPTEC. Since December 2015 we also participate in the European Space Agency Business Incubation Centre Portugal, which will last until December 2017.
During the first year of incubation at UPTEC and participation in the ESA BIC Portugal program, i.nanoEnergy developed two prototypes of micro- /nano-generators. One uses the hybridization of two different technologies to generate electricity while walking. The other uses a new technology with an innovative design (patent application in process) that allows the generation of energy with the movement of water. In addition to the development of prototypes, in 2016 i.nanoEnergy participated in the “Mentes que Brilham” program of Porto Canal, made several radio interviews and attended several events related to Energy and the Internet of Things (IoT) , Such as Green Bussiness Week, Startupbootcamp Smart Transportation & Energy, Microsoft IoT Summit, UPTEC Non-Stop – Product Showroom, ESA Couture in Orbit and 2nd Anniversary of ESA BIC Portugal. i.nanoEnergy was also one of the semi-finalists of the Acredita Portugal entrepreneurship competition, hosted two trainees from the Erasmus+ program, and attracted Repsol’s interest in the development of micro-generators in extreme conditions.
During the 2nd year of incubation at UPTEC and participation in the ESA BIC Portugal program, we continued to develop prototypes of micro-/nano-generators. The most relevant include: i) triboelectric sensor on the insole of a shoe to measure the pressure distribution exerted at the bottom of the foot while walking; ii) energy generator using new technology and an innovative design (approved patent no. WO 2017/158513 A1) to generate energy with the movement of a fluid. This last product attracted the interest of the company Águas do Porto, with which we began to work. In 2017, we also became a spin-off of the University of Porto, won a European project H2020 (739797 – HarshEnergy) with which we hired a doctoral researcher, and won the 3rd prize of the Splash Innovation Stage competition and the innoEnergy special prize of the same competition, which awarded the startup with the highest potential in terms of energy efficiency. At the end of 2017 we became one of the startups incubated at the Repsol Foundation, developing micro-generators to power small sensors/batteries in remote places and extreme conditions.
