Introducing Nesh — The First SixLab Startup To Launch A Proof Of Concept With Shell

‍SixLab, our global incubator for energy and exploration entrepreneurs, is excited to share that one of our startups, Nesh, has launched its first proof of concept, also  known as a POC, in an effort to prove out its technology with Shell through the program.

Nesh builds Subject Matter Avatars that help companies preserve and access knowledge effortlessly through its domain-based answer engine. Nesh is always learning and allows users to have a natural conversation with their content, letting them proceed with the confidence that they have the right information driving their strategy.

“I noticed, about four years back, that most data science and product development efforts in the Industrial space were focused on numbers,” said Nesh Co-Founder and CEO Sidd Gupta. “However, text was largely ignored — even though 80% of a company’s knowledge is in text and in people’s minds and not in numbers. And so we built Nesh to address that large, overlooked area.”

Nesh connects to all the content and expert knowledge within an organization, reads it, understands it, learns from it, and becomes a virtual Subject Matter Expert that can answer technical questions.

“Nesh is an exponential step forward in search technology for unstructured data,” said SixLab Program Director Max Gray. “For the energy industry, it is like having a conversational AI like Alexa — if Alexa had a PhD in geology, geophysics, engineering, and business.”

SixLab by Studio X was created by Shell to foster new ways of working and promote innovation in energy. As a game-changing incubator, SixLab aims to transform exploration by bringing together world-class startups, like Nesh, and other innovators with Shell’s talent, expertise, and resources.

“As a startup, it’s very hard to get large companies to notice you,” said Gupta. “ And the process of getting your foot in the door can be time consuming and complex. SixLab offered us the opportunity to work with Shell.”

X-Digi Exploration Geoscientist Leah Camilli spearheaded the relationship between SixLab and Shell to make the POC possible.

“Nesh was selected because we had very clear use cases that we had been trying to tackle,” said Camilli.  “One of our drivers was around search and specifically deriving value from our plethora of documents, Nesh fit nicely into this pillar.”

Although specific details of the POC cannot be released, Nesh continues to accelerate their growth strategy to expand the usage and availability of Subject Matter Avatars to a wide range of applications within Exploration and beyond. The success they’ve experienced in the short time during the POC proves that their NLP technology delivers on the promise of saving companies time, money and resources.  

With SixLab, startups like Nesh become part of an ecosystem hyper-focused on bringing new ideas and technologies to life. We provide these startups with access to world-class mentoring, resources, and facilities to help shape and refine their ideas. If an idea has potential to solve key oil and gas industry pain points, we may bring the company into our program to accelerate their path to a commercial pilot.

SixLab is focused on open innovation, which goes beyond simply sharing data — it’s also about sharing ideas. Giving startups the opportunity to partner with Shell has the potential to change the energy industry and is key to progress in the industry. If you have an idea or a startup that could shape the future of energy, consider joining SixLab to take advantage of our global network of resources and expertise. Apply here — applications are accepted on a rolling basis, and we’re eager to hear your ideas. Watch Nesh's story through video below.

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