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Freight Freight Innovation Fund first round winning projects

Published 11 April 2023

The first round of Freight Innovation Fund winning projects was announced in April 2023.

Following a competitive selection process, the Freight Innovation Fund administrators, Connected Placed Catapult, chose 9 successful bids that propose innovative solutions across software, manufacturing and operations.

Electric Assisted Vehicles Ltd

Developing a 4-wheel, electrically assisted lightweight delivery vehicle as an alternative to petrol and diesel vans.

Based in Bicester, Oxfordshire and partnered with FedEx Express.

Awarded £150,000

Skyports Deliveries Ltd

Improving logistics in ports and hard-to-reach areas through the Orkney I-Port project that will create an intermodal transport hub to improve island-to-island connectivity using drones to make deliveries, conduct surveys and monitoring.

Based in Orkney, Scotland and partnered with Royal Mail and Loganair.

Awarded £150,000

Entopy

Creating a digital twin of shipments to track them during their delivery, providing vital information and supporting greater use of digital products in the freight sector.

Based in Suffolk and partnered with Fujitsu Services UK and Atamai Freight.

Awarded £145,000

Otaski Energy Solutions Ltd and Syselek Ltd

Trialling their cost and energy-efficient smart charge and bi-directional converter, which allows electric vehicles to charge from any power grid source and discharge energy back to the grid or storage. This could help create an intelligent vehicle fleet charging system that increases grid reliability, resilience and stability and high adaptations to variable loads.

Based in Gateshead and partnered with Costain.

Awarded £145,000

RoboK Ltd

Trialling the use of their artificial intelligence system to generate insights from existing video data, such as CCTV, to provide analysis on the likes of capacity and asset movement in real time to reduce costly delays and inefficiencies.

Based in Cambridge and partnered with Port of Tyne.

Awarded £133,000

CocoonFMS Ltd

Creating a digital calculator to provide automated management of port costs and shipping expenses, providing more accurate invoice information to users, reducing port delays and improving the planning of deliveries.

Based in Lichfield, Staffordshire and partnered with Simarco Worldwide Logistics.

Awarded £129,000

CurbCargo

Using data to track the environmental impact of freight deliveries, which will prompt companies to change how they order products to reduce vehicle movements.

Based in London and partnered with Savills.

Awarded £120,000

Lightricity Ltd

Using a unique, patented technology that harnesses the energy from indoor and low-level light sources to power battery-free tracking devices to help companies realise the benefits of mobile devices without the cost challenges of battery change and sustainability impacts.

Based in Oxford and partnered with Bradford Swissport Ltd.

Awarded £119,000

Estudio Cactus

Trialling the use of their health, safety, security and environment software to provide operators with real-time information about their port to increase efficiency through improved resource management.

Based in London and in cooperation with Portsmouth International Port.

Awarded £100,000