Portuguese startup Fuelsave that developed an app to retrain lorry drivers to save fuel is among the seven winners that will take part in Repsol’s accelerator ‘Entrepreneurs Fund’ and receive up to 144,000 euros.

Fuelsave has developed a mobile application to retrain lorry fleet drivers how to drive safer and more environmentally-friendly, aiming to reduce fuel consumption by up to 20%. This project convinced the jury of the ‘Entrepreneurs Fund’ of the Spanish energy conglomerate Repsol to be selected among the five projects and two ideas to be supported in future, the Repsol foundation reports.

Selected projects such as Fuelsave will receive up to 144.00 Euros for their further development, selected ideas up to 24,000 Euros.

The acceleration program will give the selected entrepreneurs access to training, technical and legal councelling consulting and coaching by a network of over 70 experienced mentors. Start-ups will also have access to potential investors and the possibility of testing their prototypes in industrial facilities, the company states.

The aim of the fund is to support talent and encourage sustainable technological solutions in the field of energy and advanced mobility. The Entrepreneurs fund was launched in 2011, and has since then accelerated 43 start-ups selected from over 3000 applications.

It is not the first time that a Portuguese startup has been selected by the Spanish Repsol foundation. In 2017, Inanoenergy, a micro-generator initiative, and C2C-New Cap, a startup that develops a new kind of batteries, were selected Portuguese ideas.

It has been a successful month for Portuguese startup on green innovation in the transport sector. Earlier in July,Two Portuguese startups and one from Spain are the top three winners of the Prio Jump Start accelerator, beating out 99 applicants from 20 different countries.

Read more: 2 Portuguese startups win big at Prio Jump Start accelerator

Fuelsave has already gained some international attention in different competitions. In 2017, the startup competed as finalist for the Cleantech Camp of KIC Innoenergy (Spain/Portugal), the Everis Price (Spain) and the ClimateLaunchpad, the world’s largest green business ideas competition sponsored by EU body EIT.

“After three years of research, we have developed a methodology that in just one year saved €1.2 million in fuel expenses for a single company with 350 trucks. We are currently developing the mobile app to provide live training for truck drivers by using unique pairs of data, that each truck-driver pair performs differently”, Head of Business Luís Mendes stated in a recent interview for the CODE_n competition.

This is the full list of the seven selected contestants for the 2018 edition of the Entrepreneurs fund:

• Orchestra CO2 selective membranes (Spain): selective membranes to separate CO2 from other gases.
• Sensoy (Spain): Digital control of the position of all types of manual valves
• Bulgeone (Spain): online tool to anticipate and detect possible cracks or deformations in refinery coking chambers.
• Finboot (Spain): scalable and easy-to-access blockchain applications for corporate use.
• Frac-Less O&G Well Stimulation (USA): a system to improve efficiency in E&P operations.
• Venvirotech Biotechnology (Spain): processing of organic waste, transforming it into biodegradable plastics using biotechnology
• Fuelsave (Portugal): mobile application aimed at professional lorry fleet drivers to ensure a safe and environmentally-friendly driving style that helps reduce fuel consumption by up to 20%.