The first half of this week was spent in London working on project which is a great example of how collaboration between corporates and start-ups can add real value for both parties

A little over 6 months ago we were approached by Startupbootcamp and BP Castrol.  They were keen to learn about how SmartCamp and apply it to areas of strategic interest like smart mobility, intelligent operations, next generation engineering and energy management.  They wanted to understand how they could work with disruptive start-ups in collaborative way.  On Wednesday was the finale of Castrol 20:20 when five very cool start-ups pitched their business to a room full of executive and investors.  The five shortlisted companies, selected from an original 500, presented their ideas to a panel including executives from Castrol, IBM, London Bridge Capital, Wellington Partners Venture Capital and Innovation Partners following an intensive two day event that took place at the new Google Campus in London.

The range of businesses was amazing collaborative car consumption, fine particle detection, new materials and nano tech, driver safety and predictive analysis for wind farms.

As well as presenting their ideas, the shortlisted companies received mentoring from a range of experts to help hone their business plans and pitch skills before the final presentation on 29 May. The mentoring was provided by business experts across a range of industries and offered guidance and training in product development, global distribution, research and development and marketing.

Over the two days the teams met with senior execs from Castrol and BP alongside investors and leadership development experts.  There were 5 strong businesses and it was great to see how they listened to the coaching and pitched something which explained their value to Castol and to investors.

I had the honour of sitting with the judges and it was clear that all the companies were both very strong and very well align Castrol’s strategic plans.

Congratulations to all involved especially to Whipcar and Fluitec Wind who won the overall prize and the people’s choice respectively.  Next stop Castrol 2020 Shanghai