S‹o Paulo, January 20th 2018 - Startups from all regions of the Brazil may already enroll in the second edition of Free Electrons Global Accelerator, a global acceleration program carried out by EDP, a company which operates in all segments of the electric chain, together with seven other international companies.

The initiative is open to entrepreneurs with projects and business models focused on the areas of clean energy, energy efficiency, electric mobility, energy consumption management, smart networks, internet of things and customer support services. The registration for the selection process can be carried out until the 28th of February through the http://www.freetheelectron.com/site.

The 12 teams chosen will participate in a period of acceleration with planned duration of six months and will go through three modules of mentoring and training in "customer adoption", focused on companies in the sector of infrastructure. Each lasting a week, the three phases will be held in San Francisco (Silicon Valley), Australia and Berlin.

"We want EDP partnership with startups to be a win-win. We approach the entrepreneurial ecosystem and its innovative ideas, at the same time we help these projects to develop, " affirms Livia Brando, executive manager of Strategy and Innovation of the Company in Brazil.

Free Electrons is the result of the union of eight imternational corporations: AusNet Services (Australia), DEWA-Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dubai), ESB- Electricity Supply Board (Ireland), EDP (Portugal), Innogy (Germany), Origin Energy (Australia), SP-Singapore Power (Singapore) and TEPCO-Tokyo Electric Power Company (Japan). Those partners are leaders of the transition movement for a matrix of clean energy in more than 40 countries, allowing the access of more than 73 million customers worldwide.

The accelerating companies supporting the program have made a commitment to work together with startups to promote a future in which energy is smart, clean and accessible to everyone. At the end of the edition of 2017, the total value of the contracts signed between the entrepreneurs and the partner companies amounted to about US $ 2 million, with potential development of new businesses totaling more than US $ 12 million.

EDP and Entrepreneurship

The EDP Group, through its innovation ecosystem with the contest EDP Open Innovation and the EDP Starter program, has been supporting entrepreneurship in the energy sector since 2007. The Company has initiatives such as EDP Ventures, a corporate venture capital fund, and the development of pilot projects and technological demonstration.

In Brazil, the Company organized in 2017 the first national edition of the EDP Starter, which brought together five startups in S‹o Paulo for a period of acceleration and rewarded miners from Enercred with a mission to the Silicon Valley. Brazilians also stood out in the EDP Open competition Innovation, with the victory of Delphos Intelligent Maintenance in 2016 and the highlight of COSOL being among the top three of 2017.