A specialist software company, which helps optimise the design of offshore wind farms, has raised £750,000 in new funding.
The investment in Kinewell comes from the new North East Accelerate Fund, which is managed by Mercia Ventures.
Based in Wallsend, the company’s solutions have been used around the world and last year it won the King’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade.
The £750k will unlock a further 6-figure sum in grant funding, bringing the total raise to over £1m.
This will be used to develop technology and commercialisation and almost double in size over the next 6 months, with 10 new jobs.
“Offshore wind is an ideal way to decarbonise our energy supply and improve energy security. Our goal is to bring down costs and reduce the time it takes to develop new wind farms, which in turn will make wind energy more attractive and help unlock further investment into the industry,” explained CEO, Andrew Jenkins who founded the company while studying for a PhD at Newcastle University.
“Kinewell’s solutions have already helped some of the world’s largest renewable energy producers significantly reduce lead times and save hundreds of millions of pounds. This funding will help us build on that success.”
The firm’s software combines AI, supercomputing power and advanced algorithms – assessing millions of different options and to identify the most effective materials and layouts in minutes.
It typically saves 20% on the costs of the cabling system while cutting months off the development time.
The company now also offers software to design turbine layouts and transmission systems.
These new products take account of the interactions between all cabling, turbine and transmission systems, claiming to reduce the cost of offshore wind farms by 6%.
“Kinewell has achieved remarkable success despite limited investment to date,” said Chris McCourt of Mercia Ventures.
“With offshore wind entering a new growth phase, it is well positioned to capitalise on this. This investment will help unleash its potential and secure its position as the leading software of its type for the industry.”
