Energise is a 12-week energy and natural resources accelerator program run by KPMG Australia. It will conclude in early 2017.

Start-ups entering Energise get access to a mentor panel that includes expertise from international and local entrepreneurs and innovation specialists.

KMPG Australia also provides support to the Energise start-ups in areas such as company set-up, product development and market insight.

The program is supported by major natural resources companies including South32, Wesfarmers Chemicals Energy & Fertilisers, Woodside and Chevron Australia.

Due to the Australia-wide increase in applications this year seven companies will be based in Perth and, for the first time, five will take part in Brisbane.

Energise program director Ashley Brown said the scale of the success of last year’s participants showed the opportunities for start-ups to solve some of the sector’s major problems.

“This time we are continuing the journey by focusing on supporting both start-ups and our corporate partners on how to make innovation a reality,” he said.

“For both sides of the equation it’s a win-win situation and we expect to see some really exciting new technology and approaches brought to life during Energise.”

This year Energise will culminate with a graduation night where each start-up will pitch to investors, industry partners and guests with awards on offer for the strongest start-ups on the night.

Last year eight start-ups secured more than $450,000 worth of contracts and pilots within 12 weeks of starting the program.

KPMG WA chairman Gary Smith said the company had been overwhelmed by the quality of applicants.

“We’ve selected the Energise cohort based on feedback from our corporate partners and other experts on how new ideas and technologies can help tackle the industry’s productivity, efficiency and innovation challenges,” he said.

“Energise is about bridging the innovation gap between start-ups and industry – and we believe we can build upon last year’s success and bring fresh thinking to established players, while similarly paving the way for start-ups to work with major enterprises within the sector.”

The enterprises joining Energise in Brisbane are:

• Encoin, which is using blockchain technology to accelerate the adoption of renewable energy. Encoin is an energy token – a cryptocurrency – that rewards distributed energy generation and storage;
• High performance battery system designer Energetique. Its battery system is designed to deliver next generation motive technologies and leading edge Internet-of-Things connectivity to primary industries, military, utilities and government;
• MOVUS, which created the FitMachine that allows continuous monitoring of equipment without the need for remote inspections;
• Ozius Spatial, which has created environmental monitoring and land management decision support tool Naxia; and
• Petra Data Science, which extracts value from mining data assets using machine learning, data science and visualisation to develop easy to implement analytics and prediction solutions.

In Perth the Energise players are:

• GotSkill creator Artes Global Group. GotSkill is an online platform where skilled workers manage their verified skills and connect with employers, recruiters and trainers;
• Clearview Well Services, which has developed a multifunction tool for surveying and cleaning oil and gas wells and associated equipment in well production and performance;
• EPC Technologies, which provides products and services focusing on clean energy optimisation and monetisation;
• Fleet Engineering, which has developed a software suite for managing fleets of assets, field staff and jobs to help fleet managers and dispatchers understand and improve performance in those areas;
• Safescape, which provides solutions to the minerals sector including Edge Protector, a system for improved edge protection in open cut mines;
• Safety knowledge retention specialist Tap into Safety. It uses a patented methodology that is underpinned by 10 years of university research to improve safety knowledge retention by 90%; and
• Transpiro, which provides a patented service using plant transpiration to detect chemicals in the ground.