Our Startup of the Week for this week is innovative London-based Pavegen – their technology able to turn footfall into electrical energy and data.
Pavegen was founded in 2009 by engineer Laurence Kemball-Cook. With a background in the energy industry, Kemball-Cook has created technology that is able to utilise the footfall on its specialised a pavement slabs, transforming this into off-grid power as well as useful data.
Whilst Pavegen’s technology, as it currently stands, cannot cater to the energy needs of the masses, its projects do show exciting, and sustainable, potential – for example, their installation in an East London shopping centre powers a section of the complex.
Pavegen’s technology utilises the kinetic energy from those walking on its platform into electrical energy. The company claim that each footstep walked on its walkway can generate a near 5 watts of power. It’s walkways have been installed across the globe, located in a range of different settings across India, Hong Kong, Korea, the UK, America and beyond. Overall, the startup has delivered 200 innovative projects to 30 different countries, working with some of the most iconic brands out there, including Coca-Cola and adidas.
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In addition to being a green energy provider, Pavegen’s technology also unlocks valuable data from this footfall. By tracking the location of the footsteps whilst on the pavement slabs, the company can provide useful data to retailers and advertisers about the way customers react with the space, thereby helping them to optimise advertisement within the area, improving customer engagement.
It’s latest model has become an award-winning piece of tech – the V3 winning the 2017’s award for South by Southwest’s Smart Cities Interactive Innovation as well as UK PropTech’s 2018 award for social impact.
The company has raised a total of $8.5 million, a crowdfunding round in May of last year doubling its initial target of £950,000 to a whopping £2.6 million. The company claim their mission is “to make our technology available to all communities, empowering people for a better world.”
With a push for green energy coming from multiple different directions, and the exciting multi-purpose potentials their paving slabs have, Pavegen may be a one to watch in the coming years.
