Earlier this month, we were lucky enough to welcome thirteen exciting startup businesses to a pitch day that took place at Science Gallery London. Together they presented how Centrica could better provide for millennial's, through potential partnerships and collaborations.
The startups took to the stage and pitched their businesses, highlighting early successes and future ambitions – and how they believed we might be able to help them achieve this. Pitches came from teams like Ripple Energy, who enable people to partly own a new wind farm to supply their home with clean, low cost electricity, to Glue, who allow for in-home deliveries while you’re out and about by retrofitting a smart lock to your door.
The purpose of the Generation xYz pitch day was to find startups that we can collaborate with to make customers’ worlds simpler, more connected and more sustainable. Millennial's are a group of customers who are not only vital to Centrica’s future but also to its present. Now the biggest workforce demographic, they are looking for low-cost, easy-to-use and cutting-edge solutions that will positively impact the way they live, work and move.
So we want to better meet the changing needs of this generation of customers. By collaborating with startups who have the right offering and providing our scale, expertise and investment, we have the opportunity to do something really exciting.
The audience was a mix of Centrica employees from different business units who were looking for solutions to problems they’re currently facing within the business, as well as selected external partners.
Following their pitches, the startups spent the day engaging with our team through a series of Q&A sessions and informal conversation. We are now chatting further with a number of the startups, including Ripple, Glue, AskPorter and Just Move In, with the intention of working with them on Proof of Concept trials to prove the viability of a longer term commercial relationship.