Shell Springboard - Aiming to find the next big idea in low - Carbon enterprise and innovation

Cella is about trying to find a safe and convenient way of storing hydrogen. There are all sorts of potential applications everything from somewhere where you're currently using batteries all the way through to transport. What you're seeing here is the Cella laboratory this is where we make our materials and it's where we make small bits of prototype kit. We're an engineering startup and we've developed a hybrid system that can retrofit into existing double decker buses. Our hybrid system is a cost-effective solution to not only reduce the amount of fuel you're using and hence the cost, but also, and very importantly reducing the amount of emmissions which come out of the bus. We first heard about Springboard on the internet. Getting ready for the Shell Springboard and then practising it by going into those pitches was of huge use when we went out to do it for real in front of the potential investors. One of the biggest benefits of this award is that it's not fire-and-forget. It's 'you've won' and now how can we get you involved in events, how can we support you going forward with PR, with opportunities. We were able to contact the media to get our story out there, that global reach turned out to be really very valuable for us. We managed to get funding from an organisation called Space Florida which means now we have an office based on the Kennedy Space Centre site with a bunch of Scientists out there as well. Since we entered the Springboard Awards we've gone from 2 to 5 people, so it definitely has a big impact on being able to grow the company faster. We're currently just finishing off our prototyping phase, we aim to start manufacturing at the beginning of 2015 it's very ambitious but I think we're definitely on the right path. Apply for the award, it's really important. It was important for our company, it gave us credibility and it's helped get us where we are today.