Associated British Ports , the UK’s leading ports operator, has announced an industry-leading programme, the ‘Energy Ventures Accelerator’, to help promising startups scale their businesses in high-growth energy sectors, such as hydrogen, floating wind and low-carbon fuels.

The Energy Ventures Accelerator will be delivered in partnership with Plug and Play, the world’s leading innovation platform and venture capital investor. ABP is the first UK port operator to partner with Plug and Play, which has a world-wide network of over 550 corporate partners and 65,000 startups in its network.

The announcement comes as ABP recommits to its mission of Keeping Britain Trading whilst signalling its intention to place increasing emphasis on Enabling the Energy Transition. This is underpinned by the company’s commitment to safety, sustainability and its people.

As part of the project, ABP joins Plug and Play’s global network of industrial, energy and technology companies, all with a common interest in connecting with leading-edge innovation in order to diversify, protect and expand their businesses. ABP will focus on developing focused centres for industrial decarbonisation in the Humber, floating offshore wind in South Wales and maritime decarbonisation in Southampton.

With major development sites and a customer base of blue-chip energy, industrial and shipping customers, ABP is uniquely placed to support start-ups access the key demand centres for their products. As they grow, they will have ready access to the port infrastructure needed to export to global markets.

Henrik L. Pedersen, ABP CEO, said: “The energy transition is both a huge challenge and an opportunity. Partnership and innovation are going to essential if we are to collectively rise to the challenges and grasp the opportunities.

“ABP is excited to use our assets to support the best and brightest companies to prosper, and these companies will be ABP’s customers of the future, bringing good jobs and investment into our port communities, while also supporting the UK’s energy transition and economic growth.”

Working across a wide range of different industries, from transport and sustainability to fintech and energy, Plug and Play is the most active global early-stage Venture Capital investor and seeks to build a globally recognised, open innovation platform, rooted in collaboration between corporates, startups, government and academia.

Kieran Borrett, Director at Plug and Play UK, added: ”I’m thrilled about this partnership because we believe that startups have a lot to gain from working with ABP and their industry partners. Ports are the connector of logistics, heavy industry and energy – they are crucial to UK’s energy transition. ABP’s assets and clear sustainability commitments make them the perfect partner for ambitious start-ups in the energy transition space.”

ABP’s 21 ports across England, Scotland and Wales contribute £15 billion to the UK economy every year, directly employs over 2,500 people and supports over 200,000 jobs across wider supply chains.

Driven by a commitment to reaching net zero from its own operations by 2040 at the latest, and support the UK’s energy transition, ABP launched its sustainability strategy, ‘Ready for Tomorrow’ in February 2023. Since then, it has made steady progress, including decreasing GHG emissions by 8.5% and increasing its recycling rate to 73%.