encentive
Flexibility-as-a-Service for Utilities and Grid Operators
The Problem
The transition to renewable energy is creating a decentralised, dynamic and highly volatile energy system. Large energy consumers, such as SMEs and industrial players, are increasingly facing the challenges of these developments. They are also faced with increased regulation and rising CO2 prices. The war in Ukraine and subsequent energy price spikes have added further uncertainty. Managing the cost and volatility of energy has become even more important and there is increasing pressure to implement intelligent systems to use and source energy more efficiently.
The Solution
Encentive has developed a new generation of AI-powered energy management systems. Its flex-On platform enables SMEs and industrial customers to optimise the entire demand side. The flex-On platform is a digital solution that takes into account internal and external data from a company's existing asset infrastructure. On this basis, the system provides predictions and automatically executes optimisations and reacts in real time.
The core value proposition is to efficiently manage energy price volatility and reap the benefits of flexibility by combining local on-site optimisation (including own energy production from e.g. solar PV) with the exploitation of market opportunities through demand response. The flex-On platform is particularly targeted at industrial processes where cooling and heating are essential, such as logistics, food, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
Why we invested
The market for energy and emissions management and optimisation for SMEs and industrial customers is huge and demand is growing rapidly. Reducing energy costs and optimising energy consumption has become a necessity for energy intensive SMEs.
Encentive has developed a technologically advanced solution that has been tested and refined with its first customers over the past few years. The company has been able to attract high profile customers and has demonstrated that it delivers massive value. The solution not only delivers significant cost savings, but also has an environmental impact by reducing emissions. The three founders have invested many years in research before developing Flex-On, giving them a technical competitive advantage.
We believe that competing solutions on the market are much less mature.
eco2grow
Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) marketplace for SMEs
The Problem
High and increasing volatility and escalating prices in the energy market present significant challenges to all participants, especially those whose operations are heavily dependent on energy. These conditions often disrupt long-term strategic planning and undermine competitiveness. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are particularly vulnerable to these challenges.
Historically, SMEs have relied on traditional methods of procuring electricity and are often disadvantaged by their lack of access to subsidised electricity tariffs or tailored direct B2B power purchase agreements (PPAs). This limitation is due to their insufficient size, the complex contractual terms associated with PPAs and their often perceived lack of creditworthiness. As a result, these companies face an uphill battle to remain competitive and financially viable in a turbulent energy market.
The Solution
ECO2GROW mission is to enable SMEs to purchase energy directly from solar and wind farms. Their solution not only reduces energy costs for SMEs, but also provides reliable long-term planning, ensures an authentic, fully traceable supply of green energy, and removes legal and transactional barriers. With its model, ECO2GROW will revolutionise the way SMEs procure green energy and open up Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) to SMEs for the first time.
ECO2GROW will accomplish this mission through a revolutionary fintech B2B SaaS platform. Using an innovative credit risk portfolio approach, the platform aims to democratise access to PPAs by welcoming smaller market players. It is also designed to fully integrate with existing energy contracts, ensuring a seamless transition and ongoing operations for companies.
Why we invested
The renewable energy market is experiencing robust growth and requires market instruments that A) amplify this growth, B) optimise capital efficiency, and C) broaden participation and acceptance. ECO2GROW aims to meet these three key objectives. ECO2GROW innovatively aggregates SMEs into power purchase portfolios, enabling them to directly access electricity from solar and wind farms. In doing so, ECO2GROW delivers significant cost benefits while ensuring long-term planning predictability in terms of volume, price and carbon footprint reduction. This extends the reach of the benefits of renewable energy.
These aspects are critical to a successful energy transition, making renewable energy more accessible, affordable and attractive to a wider market segment - one of the core principles of Vireo's investment thesis.
atmen
Software solution for the hydrogen economy to trace carbon content and certify the decarbonization of supply chains.
The Problem
The green hydrogen market is arguably the next energy revolution, similar to the renewable energy revolution 20 years ago.
The single biggest enabler and bottleneck in building the green hydrogen industry (and later other low carbon products) is the verification of hydrogen or other products as green, i.e. ensuring that the CO2 content is below a defined threshold for the entire value chain from the energy used to produce the hydrogen, the carriers used to transport the hydrogen, and any further processing or blending at the point of use.
There is currently no solution for this.
The Solution
atmen's IoT and SaaS platform solves this problem by enabling energy-intensive goods manufacturers to easily digitise, automate and streamline the certification process.
This helps industrial players to earn money from green premiums, save costs and resources through process efficiency, and gain trust and reputation from these certificates.
The company's IoT and software solution not only provides full transparency and quantification of carbon emissions along the value chain, but also provides government-approved certification across different schemes and countries.
Furthermore, once established in the green hydrogen economy, it will be rolled out to other industries with potential low carbon products.
Why we invested
The green hydrogen economy is the next big thing. It needs certification to get started.
However, certification is more of a "licence to operate" than a "strategic product differentiator" in itself, so the appetite for outsourcing is high.
And in a second step, the technology can be transferred to adjacent markets: low carbon fuels, low carbon gases, low carbon chemicals, low carbon goods, green CO2, energy intensive goods (steel, cement, fertilisers, aluminium & other EU ETS impacted goods).
And we believe atmen, its team and its solution will do just that.
Amperecloud
The operating system for renewable energy.
The Problem
According to the IEA, renewable energy technologies like solar and wind are the key to reducing emissions in the electricity sector, which is the single largest source of CO2 emissions today. In order to reach net-zero, almost 90% of global electricity generation in 2050 will need to come from renewable sources, with solar PV and wind together accounting for nearly 70%.
The Solution
With Amperecloud, owners and operators of renewable energy plants can manage their entire portfolios on a single platform, increasing efficiency. As the only comprehensive, all-in-one solution, ampere.cloud allows its customers to enable scaling while minimizing costs and reducing losses.
The Amperecloud platform connects the full value chain from local communication and remote control for operators via IoT, to automated monitoring, to connecting the facilities to energy traders.
Why we invested
While currently focussed on solar, ampere.cloud is agnostic towards other production forms. In a very fragmented industry that faces skilled-labor shortage, ampere.cloud’s platform enables renewable energy companies to grow faster as they put their plant operations on autopilot. By establishing a connection between the plants and local grid operators as well as offering remote control to the energy markets, ampere.cloud helps stabilizing the local grids and matching supply and demand of fluctuating energy generation. This is essential to prevent blackouts in a future world that relies largely on renewable energy.
About:Energy
Better Batteries through Data
The Problem
Battery development is expensive, time consuming and carbon intensive due to the reliance on physical testing and prototyping. Building expertise and gaining insights using only in-house capabilities is a significant bottleneck for many companies developing battery technology. Battery models reduce the time and cost of these development activities to help businesses lower risk and achieve sustainability goals.
Different types of models allow virtual testing to be used throughout the supply chain – from materials development to second-life applications. Although advanced battery models provide a path to faster innovation in many areas, very few companies are realising the full value of models, and most do not use them at all. Deploying models is challenging due to infrastructure requirements, technology barriers or access to talent.
The Solution
About:Energy is building the dataset for better decision making across the battery value chain, from mine to end-of-life, helping companies reduce the cost and time to bring innovations to market through a deep-tech software platform. About:Energy mitigates common issues by centralising lab facilities and expertise across multiple domains to provide customers with a complete battery modelling solution.
The company’s deep technology expertise originates from the leading battery research programmes at Imperial College London and the University of Birmingham. About:Energy continues to leverage university research to commercialise world-leading technologies, providing them to entire industries.
Why we invested
The global battery market is poised for exponential growth in the coming years. By 2030, it is estimated to reach a market value of £950 billion, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23% from 2021. Benchmark Mineral Intelligence’s Gigafactory assessment predicts that an additional 343 gigafactories will be constructed by 2031, resulting in a sevenfold increase in capacity to 7,500GWh.
Between 2023 and 2030, approximately £5.32 trillion worth of battery assets are expected to be deployed. About:Energy forecasts that research and development (R&D) spending along the battery value chain will amount to £127 billion in 2030 alone.By leveraging their models, About:Energy aims to drive innovation, cost savings, and sustainability in the rapidly growing battery market.