Battery Insiders Reflection - Battery Den 2

0:00Transcript

0:00Welcome to Battery Insiders, your podcast providing you insights in the fascinating world of batteries. Hosted by Bhavya Jha and Simon and Yelko. And we're back. Welcome back, everybody. Today we have with us Simon and Catherine from Battery Revolution. Simon, how's it going? Very well. Yeah. The summer feels already over in Germany, but I hope it's just temporarily. But yeah, very excited for reflecting on the second of the battery dance this week. Yeah. How is it? You and Catherine hosted some new startups and we'd love to hear a little bit about what the ideas were and what you guys thought. Thanks. How about Catherine? Do you want to kick us off? Yeah. Yeah. Sounds great. Well, glad to be on here, Battery Insiders, for the first time and share your reflections. So we hosted our second battery dance last Thursday and great that this time around we had three startups, which is great for timing. And we have a great spread as well from startups from India, from Philippines, also from the Nordic countries. And we have them in EV space, in the battery material space and also in the data analytics space. So it was a great spread. Specifically, we had Devic from Go Green EOT talking about the company dealing with two wheelers in India. And also Rosemary from Mark Energy Revolution Corporation talking about battery materials, a safe type of material that will basically develop a rechargeable battery with no thermal runway issues. And also Martin and Lewis from Milonar Energy and talking about how to leverage use of EVs to create virtual power plant productivity. So it's all great startups. And we had a really interesting chat with the panel as well. I really enjoyed myself.

2:05Yeah. What about you, Simon? What are some of your thoughts? Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's interesting, you know, as you just said, we had three instead of five this time. And, you know, I think we thought about if it's not, you know, not enough, but I think it really, you know, it really, in the end, even, you know, we ran out of time again. And I think, yeah, yeah, it was really nice to kind of have a bit more time, you know, to really spend more time on each startup at the end, you know, they work better. I mean, it's tough, right? I mean, any of these quick three minute elevator pitch styles, it's tough to, you know, you know, put together like all the, you know, all the work these are doing, but I think it was really interesting to also have these more lengthy discussions afterwards and get different perspectives. Yeah. And I think it's also just really fascinating. Maybe just quick, you know, quick thanks again to our fantastic panelists, you know, from Maggie, Stephanie, Remy, and Bruce, I think it was really fantastic as well to have him with us. And, you know, I think they really, they also really enjoyed, I think, to have more time for asking questions.

3:02Yeah. So that's, was definitely one of my things. I think what was interesting for me also to think about, you know, again, you mentioned before as well, you know, the variety of startups there are, right? We can talk about charging and talk materials, we can talk, you know, different vehicles. And is it more about hardware? Is it more about software and all these kinds of things? And just things were fascinating, you know, what's happening and also just from all around the world, I think, yeah, it was really, really enjoyable. I can, you know, recommend people also to have a longer listen as well. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. What I really liked about the panelists is that they all have their own different views. And, you know, Remy bring, bring about an investor, investor perspective, what he thinks about particular startups. And also, it's, it's really interesting to hear a different viewpoints, some things that particular pitch is great, some things otherwise. It's really exciting, the session, I think, would love to, for the audience to kind of go through the whole thing, if they have the time to, to kind of listen through the whole session. It'd be really interesting to find out what the panelists thought about the startups.

4:20Well, I love the regional and idea diversity that these startups brought to the conversation. What did, did you guys think that the regional diversity of the three startups, you know, really came out in any way, you know, we had India and Philippines, both in, you know, Asia, Asia Pacific, and then of course, Norway, Scandinavian country, I feel like, in the big grand scheme of things, there are variations. And, you know, always with my little policy hat on, I'm thinking, well, in terms of policy, and even like legal expectations of, you know, energy saving technology, I just feel like they may be in different places. But I'm wondering if you guys have any thoughts on that, and if that was part of that conversation. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I think it's interesting to also hear from the startups, in terms of the market that they're tackling and how different it is. For example, Devic went into the two-wheelers market in India, the largest two-wheeler market in the world. It's interesting to find different perspectives and how he dealt with that as compared to Milner Energy and their focus on the technology is definitely very different from the market they're tackling in the European market. So, yeah, there's definitely a diversification there. And I enjoyed hearing how they dealt with their respective markets as well.

6:01I agree. I think it was interesting, you know, to, I think, especially from India, kind of some of these market developments happening there. And I think also then, you know, you mentioned like, you know, Philippines, you know, like different kind of chemistries, different research. And I think there's some regional component to this. On the other hand, I think it's also quite interesting to see that, you know, that a lot of these are the similar questions and similar thoughts, you know, we have all around the world. And I think there's just different stages, maybe also industries, et cetera. So there's some, you know, different speeds, maybe things are happening and operating. But I think, you know, I think something also right with battery sources, et cetera, right? We also think about a lot as, you know, how can we make this a global success story, right? How can we make positive change everywhere and globally? And I think this was a great example, again, you know, where yeah, there are exciting, you know, startups and innovative, like, you know, people and groups work on these topics all around.

6:54Yeah, one thing we talk about often on this podcast is, what does it take to break into the industry? And then, of course, as you as I hear startups and these ideas, it makes me wonder how different the barriers may be across jurisdictions, really, and, you know, country specific reasons that may make it harder to kick off these battery startups. But anywho, just a little bit of food for thought for our listeners tuning in with us today. Absolutely. And I think there are differences, right, from all around the world, regulation, these kind of perspectives, something we really didn't cover so much as well. But I think it's also really fascinating now to see, you know, new incentive programs being developed all around, right? I mean, I saw the updates also from India, you know, with plants, build some gigafactories. Today, there was another meeting with, like, you know, some incentive programs in Europe. And I mean, I think that's a big driver, right, for startups. I think, you know, I mean, every startup has to get started and need some resources, right? And there's different ways to get funding and support. But I think it's something quite exciting as well. I think there's more and more programs and support systems are being created in the battery space because it's super hard. And I think it's also said, you know, from our panelists, we have, you know, lots of experience as well, you know, in the sector.

8:26And also, sometimes I've been saying, you know, it's going to be tough. It's going to be hard to do this. But I think it's also like maybe, you know, anybody listening here, you know, out there, you know, and maybe being on the other side, right? More on the policy or like big corporates or, you know, and how can you support, you know, these new innovative startups? Because nice thing is, you know, they don't de-risk some of these really innovative, you know, things. And then hopefully things can be scaled in different ways as well. Yeah, exactly. I think that's what I like to keep an eye out for is like which governments are supporting or launching new initiatives to support the growth of these startups, which can be so challenging, but is so needed. And that was exciting to definitely touch upon during Saturday's conversation. But of course, I think it requires maybe thinking about things through, you know, a policy or a legal lens. What do you think, Catherine? I mean, you also, yourself, you know, in this one of the space as well, in Asia, which we didn't have so much representation this time, what do you think about like other incentives, programs, support systems, things are changing or is it getting easier or harder to do a battery startup? Maybe that's a question. Do you have any thoughts?

9:51I think when the pandemic, it's definitely easier to start a battery startup. Continuity is always an issue with any startup. So I wouldn't talk about going to that. But definitely, there's a lot more interest in battery and EV. I think it's like the new kind of hope, ray of hope, post-pandemic. And would definitely be a friend post-pandemic as well. And countries have already started looking at standards during the pandemic or even before the pandemic in ASEAN as well. We see a lot of countries just setting targets by 2030, by 2035 to go, you know, fully electric and bar any sale of ICE vehicles. So we do see targets like that with the governments in ASEAN. Just see the difference in the targets that are being set by each country make it difficult or make it difficult for a particular setup in a certain country to grow. But they can leverage on a regional effort on the regional market to expand their market reach. So definitely, we do see positive changes here in Asia. And I think the issue is always, how do you talk to investors about deep tech startup? How do you convey the ideas across to an investor who is looking into this space but do not have a lot of knowledge about batteries? And I guess that goes back to the intention of Battery Den, initially, of why we wanted to start it in the first place. You know, to really build this platform platform for startups to be able to reach out to tech, not just investors with tech background, but also tech experts and investors can also hear from the tech experts, their thoughts that we use about particular technology. So yeah, I think we do definitely need a lot more platforms such as these. Myself, I would really have loved for a platform like that when I was working on my startup in the initial stages.

12:02So yeah, we would love to see more of this, hopefully for any startups listening out there. We'd love for them to join Battery Den as well, as we announce the next ones, which will definitely have another one up and coming. Just stay tuned to Battery Evolution. Absolutely. And maybe there's also one quick thing to add as well. For us, it's also quite important to represent and also showcase more diverse founders and startups. And I think that's a big topic for us as well. How can we encourage more diverse founders in the sector? And I think especially in the battery space overall, that's a topic, but then also especially from startup perspective as well. So I think especially if you are less represented from founder or executive team of any of these startups, please also reach out. Always very excited to have you involved and feature you, et cetera. And maybe also, maybe just a quick plug in there as well to add, we're going to do another Battery Day on the 23rd of September. And we think about ways, how can we do maybe something like a Battery Den or some pitch events, et cetera, in there as well to give it a big stage and big platform. So yeah, if you are start listening, please get in touch. We should have our names and contacts in this podcast.

13:18All right. And with that, reach out to us if you have any questions or ideas, as Simon and Catherine have mentioned. We look forward to seeing you on next week's show. Thanks so much. Have a good day, everyone. Ciao. Bye-bye. Have a good day. Have a good day, everyone. Bye.