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Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) is supporting the next generation of Australian startups to thrive with Australia’s EnergyLab through a $1.64 million grant.

The grant will be used to deliver the ‘Entrepreneurial Support for the Cleantech Startup Ecosystem’ project to support and develop Australia’s renewable energy startup ecosystem. The funding aims to address the current lack of support for early stage clean energy startups in Australia.

“The funding support being provided by ARENA means that EnergyLab can continue to offer and develop leading support programs to grow the clean energy and climate tech startup community in Australia. Over the past 7 years EnergyLab has supported over 170 startups and 130 aspiring founders while building a network of over 370 mentors and 180 angel investors. Moving forward we will be focused on delivering support that takes founders all the way from launching a startup to scaling globally. It's an exciting time for the startup innovation ecosystem in Australia, and providing the right support for founders will be a key element in Australia becoming a renewable energy super power.” - Megan Fisher CEO & Director EnergyLab

ARENA CEO Darren Miller said the project EnergyLab would provide valuable support to startups commercializing emerging technologies.

“Startups represent the future of renewable energy, taking the ideas and technologies that will get us to net zero and bringing them to market,” Mr Miller said. “ARENA is funding EnergyLab to keep providing entrepreneurial support services to the renewable businesses of tomorrow, because of the transformative impact new ideas can have. We’re excited to see what the next generation of EnergyLab alumni go on to achieve.”



Previous EnergyLab alumni include energy retailer Amber Electric, Allegro Energy, a producer of redox flow batteries for utility-scale storage, Renewable Metals, an end of life battery recycler that can recover almost all of the critical minerals for reuse, and Infravision, whose drone enabled line stringing services promises cheaper and safer transmission infrastructure.

Founded in 2017, EnergyLab works to address the mission of supporting emerging Climate Tech startups to overcome the barriers they face when scaling novel technologies and solutions. EnergyLab’s programs include the Women in Climate and Energy Fellowship building the next generation of women founders; the Climate Tech Ignite Program supporting aspiring and early-stage founders to generate, test and launch their startup idea; the Climate Tech Charge Program supporting startups to build traction, connect with investors and acquire seed funding; the Climate Solutions Accelerator helping startups deploy their solutions; the Scale Up Program for later stage clean energy startups; The International Bootcamp program designed to help startups looking at international expansion; and Supercharge Australia a joint program with New Energy Nexus to build the lithium battery value chain startup innovation ecosystem and a climate focused angel investor network.The Women in Climate and Energy Fellowship, Climate Solutions Accelerator, the Energy Scaleup program are all being supported for 4 years ARENA funding.

In addition to the startup programs, EnergyLab runs a Mentor Network with over 370 mentors volunteering their time to help the startups and EnergyLab Angels with more than 180 investors. EnergyLab also offers co-working and events to facilitate collaboration and networking. and hosts a number of information sharing and networking events.


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