“We have world-leading expertise contributing to the decarbonisation of transport.”

The Clean Transport Accelerator is a collaboration between NatWest and WMG and really the goal is to help businesses who are interested in decarbonising transportation – to grow and scale.

We try and do a number of things over the 6 months that a business works with us, on their time on the accelerator. We try and get them to better product market fit. We try and improve their network, so, sign posting and getting them to meet with the right people in the room. And then really it’s about funding options and helping them understand the funding landscape. What can they get access to, how can they collaborate with WMG, and how can they work with other founders to solve some of the problems that they have.

Transport is the single biggest greenhouse gas emitter in the UK. It’s responsible for about a quarter of our greenhouse gas emissions. Transport has to change, the way that we move around has to change. Cities have to change. At WMG we can see that change coming, we have world leading expertise in numerous areas that contribute to the decarbonisation of transport. Things like batteries, automation technologies, cyber security – all of this stuff that will be essential for the transport and the infrastructure parts of it. And, we want to help businesses grow and scale and exploit that opportunity and help change the world as well.

Really the aims of the Accelerator, there’s probably two parts to it – The first is obviously the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the other part, really what the accelerator is about is businesses in the local community, and even within the wider UK. So, obviously we have businesses from all over the UK, that travel to work with us on the Accelerator. But, we’re helping to establish those businesses in the West Midlands and grow the West Midlands, to grow the transport ecosystem, and the start-up ecosystem in the West Midlands. That’s a really big part of what we’re doing as well.

So, in terms of the key takeaways that a start-up comes away from the accelerator with – I think one of the things that we see, particularly as coaches and myself and the others who work on the accelerator is, that life as a founder is really hard. You have a unique perspective on the world, you have a unique understanding of a particular challenge you have, a technology solution you want to save the planet. You want to grow your business, and you believe in it passionately, but, at the same time, you’re on a personal journey, and you’ve got hurdle after hurdle after hurdle.

You’ve got challenge after challenge and nobody quite gets it and nobody quite understands it – except that, every other founder on our accelerator is on the same journey, all of the coaches have seen it before. You’re working with a group of people who understand your problems and if they don’t have the direct solution, they can help you find someone who can.

If any business is thinking about applying to the Clean Transport Accelerator, and they’re not sure. I’d encourage them to reach out for a conversation, because there’s always a way that we can support, even if it’s not on this cohort of the accelerator. It’s how do you get ready for the next one, or what challenges might we help you overcome in the meantime.