forward looking22 Mar 2018 16:58
UK leading energy supplier hunts for Israeli tech in bid for competitive edge
Officials of a unit of Centrica Plc are meeting with startups and mulling investments for a new �100 million innovation fund
By SHOSHANNA SOLOMON
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British Gas is a unit of Centrica Plc, which is scouting for technologies in Israel (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
British Gas is a unit of Centrica Plc, which is scouting for technologies in Israel (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Centrica Innovations, a unit of the largest energy provider in the UK, is on the scout for Israeli technologies that can help expand the scope of products and services it provides customers. The tech push comes as the owner of British Gas faces growing competition in the industry and is witnessing a transition of consumers to online services.
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Company officials are currently in Israel, meeting with local startups and making Startup Nation one of its first stops for a �100 million ($140 million) fund it set up in September.
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�We see Israel as a real concentration of both entrepreneurial talent and technology talent,� said Jonathan Tudor, director of Technology & Innovation Strategy at Centrica Innovations, the innovation arm of Centrica Plc, a British multinational utility company with �28 billion in revenues in 2017. The company said in February it plans to cut an additional 4,000 jobs after profits at the group fell 17 percent.
�As technology evolves it changes our lives, and part of my team�s work is to understand and predict what those problems are going to be. And then develop and build new services to meet those challenges,� Tudor said in an interview in Tel Aviv on Wednesday.
Jonathan Tudor, the Director of Technology & Innovation Strategy at Centrica Innovations, in Tel Aviv, March 21, 2018 (Shoshanna Solomon/TimesofIsrael)
Centrica, which has been operating since 1812, supplies energy to homes in the UK via its British Gas unit, as well as to homes in North America under the Direct Energy brand.
The firm also has a connected home business, in which it provides households in the UK, Italy and North America with connected home devices, software and services, including home energy management tools and home automation appliances.
Centrica Innovations was established in 2017 to invest in new technology and ideas, seeking to collaborate with innovative companies around the world and searching for new technologies that can be used at homes and businesses. Its key fields of interest are distribution of energy, electrification of transport and increasing connectivity through data, blockchain and the Internet of Things, explained Tudor, an Oxford universit