• The Group has established four blue oceans to identify innovative or NetZero business proposals.

• Entrepreneurs, researchers, start-ups, spin-offs, university and technology institutes and companies can submit their ideas to this new vehicle for innovation.

• The president of the Valencian Business Association (AVE) calls on Spanish business leaders to promote similar initiatives to position the Valencian Community as a benchmark in entrepreneurship, innovation, technology and research.

GD Energy Services (GDES) has launched Blue Ventures, a new open innovation platform to link companies, projects and entrepreneurs in the field of energy, initially within Spain and with future plans to grow internationally in subsequent stages. Through this new vehicle for innovation, GDES aims to identify innovative proposals, projects or business developments related to decarbonisation, energy efficiency, digital transformation, or the circular economy – the four blue oceans – to create an ecosystem of collaborative innovation in pursuit of a sustainable energy transition.

Blue Ventures was unveiled this morning in Valencia (Spain) during an event in collaboration with the Valencian Business Association (AVE) and Fundación LAB Mediterráneo, which brought together the most important players in the innovation ecosystem from across the country. Vicente Boluda, president of AVE, opened the event. In his speech, he pointed out that “AVE promoted Fundación LAB Mediterráneo in 2021, with an ambitious but achievable vision: to help position the Valencian Community as a national and European benchmark in entrepreneurship, innovation, technology and research”, and that initiatives such as Blue Ventures help to achieve this. “Let us hope that it will be an example and a path to follow for many other companies and corporations in our region”, he stressed.

Supported by a European framework that has paved the way towards a Europe-wide transformation based on sustainability and digitalisation, GDES has redefined its purpose based on the goals that will shape its strategy and activity for the coming decades: to contribute to making our planet more efficient, less polluting and more sustainable.

Against this backdrop, GDES plans to invest up to 19 million euros over the next three years, with the aim of promoting Decarbonisation, Energy Efficiency, Digital Transformation and the Circular Economy, laying the foundations on which the Valencian business group will grow over the coming decades. This represents a major capital investment for this family-owned company, which has become a key player in the Spanish innovation ecosystem.

The CEO of GDES, Héctor Dominguis, summed up the standout value of this platform in one word: experience. “At GDES we were pioneers in the world of energy and we know the sector’s needs perfectly well. We have been developing industrial projects and services for its main players for more than 90 years, we understand the importance of a diversified and decarbonised energy mix and, therefore, the value we can bring to ideas, projects, researchers or entrepreneurs is what sets us apart”.

GDES, a technological ally at the service of sustainability.

Projects can apply for this open innovation vehicle regardless of their level of maturity. The only requirement is that they are part of one of the four blue oceans and that they are aligned with the GDES strategy to contribute to the development of a sustainable future. This is because the GDES Blue Ventures initiative plans to collaborate with projects at all stages of maturity, from ideas in the development phase to projects in mature companies, from university spin-offs to newly created start-ups.

The Blue Ventures target groups are entrepreneurs, researchers, university institutes, technology institutes or consolidated companies. In addition to a high capacity for industrialisation, GDES offers assistance in the preparation of analyses and strategy, development of pilot tests, support in financing, access to clients, technical advice, corporate mentoring and integration into GDES work teams.

“This is a facility that is much more than a strictly financial vehicle; it is a platform that we have created to attract innovative ideas and technology in the four blue oceans that we seek to promote,” Dominguis explained. Initially, the vehicle will always be open for any project to apply, but we do not rule out open calls for specific challenges, depending on how the programme evolves.

www.blueventures.es