Founder of the Week: Laurence Kemball-Cook

• Laurence Kemball-Cook is the sole founder of Pavegen, launched in 2009 in the UK.
• Pavegen is a pioneering clean tech company that turns footsteps into off-grid energy, data and meaningful engagement.
• With over 300 installations in 45 countries and more than a billion footsteps captured, Pavegen is changing how people interact with urban spaces.
• With constant, ongoing improvements to its core technology and a new Agentic AI Platform in development, Pavegen continues to push boundaries, blending smart infrastructure, sustainability and public engagement into one powerful solution.

 

 

Tell Me About Yourself and Pavegen

 

I’m Laurence Kemball-Cook, founder of Pavegen, an award-winning global cleantech company that transforms the power of footsteps into clean energy, data and insights. Pavegen technology has been installed in over 300 installations across 45 countries, capturing over one billion footsteps and we’ve worked with brands such as Westfield, Canary Wharf, UEFA, Ford, Uber and Barclays. We’ve lit up the world’s longest linear walkway in Saudi Arabia’s $25bn Sports Boulevard, football pitches, dancefloors and been involved in London’s first carbon neutral pub. Pavegen is a frictionless way for commuters, tourists and urban visitors to engage with sustainability with the power of a single step. 

Last year, we launched our most powerful project yet, Solar+. This hybrid tech platform combines kinetic and solar to harness more than 100% more energy with faster installation times and a lower carbon footprint. We’ve also improved our core product to improve efficiency and reduce our environmental impact. 

We are now launching our latest crowdfund campaign to support further global growth and develop our Agentic AI Platform – to create the world’s first AI engagement platform.

Aside from that, I’m also a passionate alpinist and rock climber, and a new dad to a two-year-old daughter who I have just taught to jump on her first Pavegen.

 

What Inspired You To Start Pavegen? What Problem Were You Trying To Solve?

 

Failure. 

My first job was at a leading energy company working as a design engineer and tasked with finding a way to harness solar energy in an urban environment. I was fired. With hindsight, I could have just taken a look out of the window at the grey London sky and highrise buildings and realised it was unlikely I could harness enough sunlight to give a gnat a suntan, let alone power anything of significance in a dense urban environment.

Convinced I was unemployable I turned my thinking to something even a grey urban landscape had in good supply – people. I wondered if I could harness the energy of people’s movements around a city and convert it to energy. Thus Pavegen was born. 

 

 

What Has Been Your Biggest Challenge So Far? How Did You Overcome It?

 

When we first started, all the attention was on us as a potential energy source. Our greatest challenge has been to get the market to see what we deliver in terms of data, engagement with climate change, data and insights that can be used by brands, city planners and business to shape the world around them. Generating clean energy from footsteps is eye-catching but it’s just a gateway into the real value that Pavegen can deliver. We’ve had to work hard to build relationships and confidence with major brands, businesses and governments to bake Pavegen tech into events, buildings and smart city infrastructure from the ground up. 

When you see our tech powering a greenwall in a busy commuter hub, shoppers charging their phones at an outlet powered by kinetic energy or families walking the world’s longest pathway as it lights up, you’re seeing real time data capture and insights about how a city lives and breathes. 

 

Can You Describe A Pivotal Moment That Significantly Shaped the Direction of Pavegen?

 

Failure is a bit of a theme here.

After yet another long day traipsing around London dragging a suitcase with a Pavegen tile in to disinterested or skeptical investors, I had a moment of madness. A friend and I broke into the Southbank Centre in the dead of night and installed the first Pavegen tile into the floor. We dug a hole, inserted a Pavegen in place, and filled the rest with concrete and connected the Pavegen tiles to lighting. I uploaded a picture to our website and to social media and went to bed. 

The video was seen by someone at Westfield who got in touch. Shortly after they became our first client and installation. And from there we’ve grown and grown. 

 

How Do You Define Success? 

 

For Your Business: Success at Pavegen means delivering real-world impact. If our technology can spark joy, ignite curiosity, and deepen people’s connection to sustainability, then we’re doing something right. It’s not just about energy generation, it’s about engagement. When our clients get media coverage, footfall, and actionable data insights from an installation, and when communities feel empowered by their participation, that’s success.

 

 For Yourself As A Founder: Personally, I measure success by resilience and legacy. Have I bounced back stronger from failures? Have I created something that matters, that my daughter can be proud of? Success is building a business that doesn’t just scale but inspires, disrupts, and leaves the world better than we found it.

 

What Advice Would You Give To Someone Thinking About Launching Their Own Startup?

 

Don’t wait for perfect. Start before you’re ready, and learn by doing. Ideas don’t change the world, action does. Listen more than you talk, fail forward, and surround yourself with people who challenge you. And finally, know your why. When everything feels like it’s falling apart (and at some point it will), it’s your purpose that will pull you through.

 

What’s Next For Your Pavegen? Any Exciting Developments We Should Watch Out For?

 

We’re just getting started. Our latest crowdfunding campaign is fuelling Pavegen’s next chapter including the global launch of Solar+, the world’s first hybrid energy floor tile combining solar and kinetic power. We’re also developing our Agentic AI platform, which will transform how brands and cities engage with the public making every step a measurable moment of interaction. With over £40m in our project pipeline and backing from Tamar Capital, Hinduja Group and even royalty, this is a defining moment for us. Innovation is in our DNA, so watch this space.

 

 

Want to be featured as TechRound’s Founder of the Week? Find out more about this weekly feature and how to get involved here.

 

Founder’s Five with Laurence Kemball-Cook

Being a successful entrepreneur and startup founder is an incredible accomplishment, but we want to know more about the man behind Pavegen. Here’s our exclusive “Founder’s Five” with Laurence Kemball-Cook.

 

1. Favourite Business Tool?

Notebook LM it summarises complex documents.

 

2. One Lesson You Learned the Hard Way?

Don’t pitch tech. Pitch the problem you solve—and tell a story people can feel.

 

3. One Future Trend You’re Watching?

Agentic AI – the next leap in interactive, autonomous systems that act with purpose.

 

4. One Quote You Live By?

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” – Gandhi

 

5. One Book or Podcast You Recommend?

“The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz” – no fluff, just raw startup truths.

 

Want to be featured as TechRound’s Founder of the Week? Know someone who deserves to be recognised as a founder making waves in the startup landscape? Find out more about this weekly feature and how to get involved here.