Kinewell, an award-winning U.K. company whose software helps optimize the design of offshore windfarms, has raised 750,000 pounds in the first investment by the new North East Accelerate Fund, which is managed by Mercia Ventures.
Kinewell’s solutions have been used on projects worldwide and the company won the King’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade in 2025. The investment will unlock a further six-figure sum in grant funding, bringing the total raised to more than 1 million pounds. It will enable Kinewell to accelerate technology development and commercialization, and to almost double in size within the next six months with the creation of 10 new jobs. Kinewell, based in Wallsend, North Tyneside, was founded by engineer and now CEO Andrew Jenkins while he studied for a PhD at Newcastle University. The first product, launched in 2015, helps to optimize the design of cable layouts.
“Offshore wind is an ideal way to decarbonize our energy supply and improve energy security,” Jenkins said. “Our goal is to bring down costs and reduce the time it takes to develop new wind farms, which in turn will make wind energy more attractive and help unlock further investment into the industry.”
The technology, which combines AI, supercomputing power and advanced algorithms, can assess millions of different options and identify the most effective materials and layouts in minutes. It typically saves 20 percent on the costs of the cabling system while cutting months off the development time. The company now also offers software to design turbine layouts and transmission systems. Its latest products take account of the interactions between all three (cabling, turbine, and transmission systems) and claim to reduce the cost of offshore wind farms by 6 percent, which can make all the difference when securing investment for a project.
Kinewell employs 12 staff and has a client base that includes global players such as Equinor, SSE Renewables, Parkwind, and Eurus Energy. The Accelerate funding is its first external investment. The company is working on three grant-funded innovation and development projects. The global offshore wind market was valued at about $56 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach almost $299 billion by 2034, according to a Research and Markets report. A recent wind auction by the U.K. government secured a record 8.4 GW of capacity and unlocked 22 billion pounds of investment.
“Kinewell has achieved remarkable success despite limited investment to date,” said Chris McCourt from Mercia Ventures. “With offshore wind entering a new growth phase, it is well positioned to capitalize on this. This investment will help unleash its potential and secure its position as the leading software of its type for the industry.”
More info kinewell.co.uk
