Emilio Martínez Gavira, Manager of Open Innovation and Corporate Venturing at Enagás Emprende

We speak with Miguel Martínez Gavira, Manager of Open Innovation and Corporate Venturing at Enagás Emprende, Enagás’s corporate entrepreneurship and open innovation program, created with the objective of driving new solutions for the energy transition by combining the experience of a large corporation with the agility of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Throughout the conversation, he explains how this initiative came about, what kinds of challenges make sense to address together with startups, how they structure their collaboration and investment models, and what lessons they have learned after nearly a decade promoting spin-offs, pilots, and projects linked to new energy technologies. He also reflects on the main mistakes when entering new markets and the most effective models to scale technologies such as hydrogen or biogas.

What was the origin of Enagás Emprende and what specific need did it seek to solve? Do you recall any initial project that helped define its purpose?

Enagás Emprende was born from a very clear conviction: the energy transition is a colossal challenge that we had to address in a way different from the usual, by combining internal knowledge and experience with the talent and dynamism of entrepreneurial people.
Moreover, we started from an important certainty. Large companies, such as Enagás, excel at efficiently and safely executing their business model. However, when exploring new businesses, technologies, or markets, the way entrepreneurial people act is particularly suitable for achieving results quickly and efficiently, even when those results are not initially successful because they allow learning earlier and with fewer resources.

Adding to this was a strategic ambition: to move from being a company with a single main business model and presence in a single territory to becoming a more diversified company with activities in several countries. And we wanted to do this, moreover, relying on the vision of those who know us best: our own internal talent.

With that goal, Enagás Emprende was born, Enagás’s program of corporate entrepreneurship and open innovation. Its first projects were companies led by staff from within the company that became true intrapreneurs. From that first stage, three spin-offs were created that combined the best of the large company with the best of entrepreneurship when innovating.

Today, nearly ten years later, all still operate successfully. Vira Gas Imaging, after pivoting its initial business, has become a reference company in emission detection campaigns, while Scale Gas and E4Efficiency merged to form Scale Green Energy, which currently represents one of Enagás’s main divisions focused on the energy transition. Everything started with them, and largely explains what Enagás Emprende is today.

What practical criteria do you use to decide which challenges should be solved with startups and which should stay in-house? Any case where a startup provided an unexpected solution?

The key is to clearly distinguish what we do very well and what does not make sense to develop alone. If the challenge is incremental, closely linked to core processes or very specific company knowledge, it usually remains internal or is at least addressed through more familiar ways. But when we talk about emerging technologies, new approaches, different solutions, or even new businesses that require much experimentation and agility, startups and their way of working bring enormous and differential value.

Furthermore, sometimes the contribution is not exactly what was expected at the start. We have come across startups or spin-offs that arrived to solve a specific technical problem and ended up opening new business opportunities or new ways of operating that were not initially on the radar. This is one of the great riches of working with entrepreneurial people.

A good example is E4Efficiency. It was born to incorporate a viable technology to utilize residual cold from our plants and today has become a fundamental business line within Scale Green Energy and also for Enagás.

How do you structure your model in practice: phases, instruments (investment, pilots, commercial agreements), and internal roles? What have you learned about what works and what does not in a large energy company?

Our model is intentionally flexible, open, and almost tailored to entrepreneurial people. We work with initiatives ranging from very early stages to more mature startups, combining intrapreneurship, venture building, pilots, venture client, consortia, and, of course, direct investment or through funds. Although our primary objective is usually to invest, we don’t believe in a single recipe because each startup needs a different type of support.

Over these years, we have learned a lot from 19 direct investments and 2 investment funds. The first lesson is that corporate venture is a fundamental tool to explore technologies, businesses, and markets, but it only works if there is real business involvement. It is not enough to have an investment vehicle: committed internal teams are needed, clear sponsors—often from the area’s own venture management—and well-aligned expectations.

Another important lesson is the need to be accompanied by synergistic partners in the projects. Not only to share investment and risks but especially to add infrastructure, knowledge, and experience, something particularly relevant for the kind of startups we support.

What specific mechanisms do you use to help a startup truly advance within Enagás? Any example of a project that has managed to scale?

The pilot itself is not the ultimate goal, but a means to facilitate access to disruptive solutions that respond to real needs of our business units, beyond the usual supplier channels.

Therefore, from day one we try to define what would need to happen for the technology being piloted to scale if the result were positive. And the process itself is designed to encourage that path. Any pilot is reviewed and approved by a cross-functional Innovation group, where the sponsor area defends why it is interested in that technology and the advantages of integrating it if the technical test is satisfactory.

That presentation not only specifies milestones, costs, and other technical information but also key metrics, barriers that should be anticipated—regulatory, technical, or financial—and the reasons why the solution would be a real candidate for implementation if the pilot succeeds.

The most natural process typically involves testing a technology via a pilot, a technology consortium, or even a venture client scheme, depending on the specific TRL. If successful, the next step may be to approve the startup as a supplier, share the pilot’s closing report with potentially interested areas, and integrate it as an additional solution among the existing ones.

What errors are most frequently made when entering new energy markets? What best practices would you recommend to avoid wasting time and resources?

One of the most common errors is underestimating the regulatory complexity and the time needed to build trust in energy sectors. While successfully undertaking any international initiative is usually complex, in the energy sector it is even more so, as we generally talk about critical infrastructures regulated by very different frameworks depending on the territory.

Many startups arrive with a great product but without fully understanding how decisions are made or how those markets work, which are often new to them. This lack of contextual understanding can greatly slow their development.

As a best practice, I would always recommend partnering with local partners, listening carefully at the beginning, and adapting both the messaging and working methods. Internationalization is not just replicating a model in another language but reinterpreting it based on each context.

What financing or collaboration models have you found most effective to accelerate biogas, hydrogen, or other technology projects on a regional or national scale?

We always like to say that the energy transition will be collaborative or it won’t be. That collaboration must integrate the public and private sectors, as well as the technological sphere, corporate innovation, and, of course, investment capital.

The well-known “valley of death” of entrepreneurship is especially deep in the energy sector, particularly when trying to bring science to market. For this reason, in this field, a model combining public funding, synergistic industrial corporations committed with different types of support, a technological startup or spin-off, and, if possible, patient private capital accustomed to investing in these kinds of projects is essential.

From our point of view, to accelerate technology projects related to hydrogen, biogas, or other renewable gases, venture building or corporate venture development models—where all these agents participate synergistically—represent the best combination to reduce risks, accelerate learning, and maximize impact.

What advice would you give to founders who want to collaborate with large energy companies? And what would you recommend to corporate executives who want to open up to external innovation without losing control?

To founders, I would say: study carefully the corporation you want to collaborate with and understand how your value proposition not only fits but also improves what the company already has or needs to develop. I would also recommend identifying the right person through whom to channel your solution.

Although it’s not always possible to do so through senior management—though, for obvious reasons, that is often a very effective route—people responsible for open innovation are usually the most appropriate channel. We know well the value that entrepreneurial people bring and our mission is to mobilize their solutions to the right areas within Enagás when we detect potential interest.

To corporate executives, I would recommend opening up to external innovation with curiosity, a positive mindset, and patience. The world is very large and highly connected, and it is very likely that the solution they need—or even the business that can transform their company’s future—is already emerging somewhere in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, outside the usual channels and often still under the radar.

Being able to identify those opportunities in time, almost like a scout detecting talent earlier than the rest, can make the difference between leading a new business or being left out of it. As Xavier Marcet often reminds us, innovating involves risks, but not innovating involves even more.

How can the ONE Platform help connect initiatives like Enagás Emprende with financing, partners technological and knowledge across different territories?

The ONE Platform can be a key meeting point for us. It could not only give visibility to our investment thesis and our support tools for entrepreneurs but also help us identify startups or spin-offs working in areas aligned with our interests and with whom we can launch joint projects to solve business challenges.

This type of connection can be especially valuable when dealing with initiatives that arise in a specific territory and have the potential to scale nationally or even internationally.

For us, having meeting points like this is fundamental to continue collaborating, learning, and helping science reach the market together with other key ecosystem agents. Only in this way will it be possible to advance more efficiently toward goals as important as decarbonization and supply security.