First Crawley Greentech Business Growth Fund award announced

The grant funding will allow Naked Energy to fund external testing for continuous development of their product range and international certification.

As part of the Towns Fund, Crawley Borough Council launched the fund to grow businesses and employment opportunities in the green technology and green construction sectors. The £900,000 fund provides targeted financial support for commercialisation and development of solutions to support a transition to net zero.

The fund provides:

• Start-up grants of up to £10,000
• Business development grants of up to £50,000
• Investment grants of up to £175,000 to scale up activities.

Councillor Atif Nawaz, Cabinet member for Planning and Economic Development, said: “Providing our local businesses an opportunity to access finance for green technology development is part of the council’s overall strategy to support the growth of the innovation hub for green technology in the region.

“We are delighted to present the first award to Naked Energy Limited, a longstanding member of the local greentech business community and an industry leader within their field.”

Councillor Bob Noyce, Cabinet member for Environment, Sustainability and Climate Change, said: “The council has declared a Climate Emergency and we have a commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2040. Our fund is an important step towards reducing carbon emissions in Crawley so I’m delighted that we’ve awarded our first grant.”

Christophe Williams, CEO and co-founder of Naked Energy, said: “It’s great to be awarded funding from our local council to help our business grow even further. Local innovation support is important to a growing business like ours, and it helps us continue to develop market-leading green technology products, crucial to ensure our community changes energy for good.”

The fund is part of Crawley becoming an innovation hub for greentech, which includes the construction of the Crawley Innovation Centre in Manor Royal, which will provide office space for advanced engineering innovators.

The programme is managed by Carbon Limiting Technologies, a specialist consultancy with many years’ experience in designing and delivering climate technology grants and acceleration support.

Beverley Gower-Jones, CEO of Carbon Limiting Technologies, said: “It is such a pleasure to work with Crawley Borough Council to deliver these fantastic, real-world opportunities to foster green technology innovations that will generate local jobs and support decarbonisation of commercial and industrial properties across the UK.”

For more information visit crawley.gov.uk/greentech