Smart grids (2024)

Europe’s new power players

Last updated: 27 Jun 2024

Market 101

The electricity grid is undergoing a massive shakeup. Unlike power generated by fossil fuels — which can be turned on and off to meet demand — renewable energy sources like wind and solar produce power intermittently: when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining. That means electricity grids need to be able to balance different power inputs to ensure stable supply.

In some parts of Europe, it’s now no longer possible to onboard new renewable generation sources because of a lack of balancing capacity in the grid. Balancing the grid is already extremely expensive — it cost the UK £5.6bn in 2022, which was borne entirely by consumers.

As well as changes to the supply of electricity, demand is changing too. The green transition means an increasing number of electric vehicles and heat pumps need electricity, adding to the strain on the grid. And all these new AI tools? They’re incredible — you might even say wasteful — energy hogs.

To combat this, new smart grids use a combination of software and hardware to match the supply and demand of electricity in real time to maintain a stable, reliable power supply.

The tech solutions fall into two camps. There are software tools which help manage supply and demand or monitor the grid in real-time. Then there are hardware solutions like grid-scale batteries and next-generation versions of parts of the grid itself, like transformers, the device used to increase or decrease voltage. Some companies are also building hardware with a software layer on top.

Investors are cottoning onto the opportunity the grid shakeup could bring. VCs piled a record $1.5bn into grid technologies in Europe in 2023; though that figure has fallen in the first half of 2024.

Most of that money has gone into batteries, typically a large capex investment. Companies that offer battery energy storage systems often have an agreement with the grid to act as a so-called balance responsible party, helping to rectify imbalances in the grid. They can also trade energy on the wholesale energy markets in Europe, or sometimes use a middleman, such as a large energy company, to trade stored energy for them.

Early stage market map

Deals

Key facts

11m

kilometres that are taken up by power grids in the EU1

60%

is how much electricity consumption is expected to rise between now and 2030 in the EU2

€584bn

the sum of money the EU says is required to upgrade the region’s grids3

Startups tracked by Sifted

Sifted take

Climate tech-focused investors have cottoned onto the opportunity of grid transformation across the last year or two. Within grid tech, companies building batteries for energy storage have seen the most investor interest, including from generalist investors. Grid tech is more at the whim of governments and regulators than other areas of climate technology. Waiting times for batteries to plug into the grid are long documented. While entities like the International Energy Agency have been discussing the need for grid overhaul for a relatively long time, there are still questions about how in-depth political movers and shakers’ knowledge of the situation is. Although the grid transformation is underway, the speed at which tech gets deployed depends in part on political will. Some of the hardware-based grid tech solutions are incredibly capital intensive, and existing energy companies will have an upper hand working on them. Where startups are making headway, we’re likely to see more of them partner with established utility or grid operating companies to build out the solutions. Startups that can secure those partnerships will be likely to be winners as they’ll secure industry buy-in from an earlier stage.

Rising stars

Fever

Energy optimisation

Total funding

€11.5m

Stockholm, Sweden
2022

Helps create networks of small energy-producing or storage devices, like solar panels and batteries, that are pooled together to serve the electricity grid.

Round

Seed

Valuation

Undisclosed


Date

2024

Size

€10m

Total funding

€7m

Berlin, Germany
2022

Helps store renewable energy generated during periods of low demand, which is then released to the grid when demand is high. Launched in 2022, it counts 468 Capital and PT1 in its cap table.

Round

Seed

Valuation

Undisclosed


Date

2024

Size

€7m

Reel

Energy transition solutions

Total funding

€7.3m

Copenhagen, Denmark
2020

Monitors energy usage to find the best offer on the market and allows customers to purchase electricity directly from a new solar or wind park.

Round

Seed

Valuation

Undisclosed


Date

2024

Size

Seed

Blixt

Grid monitoring and analytics

Total funding

€10m

Berlin, Germany
2018

Backed by Union Square Ventures and Energy Revolution Ventures, it offers semiconductor-based circuit breakers and household fuses.

Round

Seed

Valuation

Undisclosed


Date

2024

Size

€5m

Early stage startups to watch

Adia Thermal

London, UK
2023
Angel

600k

500k

-

Axle Energy

London, United Kingdom
2023
Seed

1.4m

1.4m

-

Bisly

Tallinn, Estonia
2018
Seed

5.3m

3.6m

-

Blixt

Stockholms kommun, Sweden
2018
Seed

10m

5m

-

BOLDR

London, United Kingdom
2022
Seed

1.3m

1.2m

-

Bren

Nilüfer, Türkiye
2018
Seed

11.2m

10.9m

-

Capalo AI

Helsinki, Finland
2022
Debt

2.5m

2m

-

Cleanwatts

Coimbra, Portugal
2020
Series A

25m

25m

-

Delta Green

Prague, Czechia
2013
Seed

2.2m

2.2m

-

EcoSync

Oxford, United Kingdom
2018
Seed

1.8m

1.1m

812k

Ecoworks

Berlin, Germany
2018
Early VC

79.6m

40m

-

Eddy Grid

Utrecht, Netherlands
2023
Pre-seed

1.5m

1.5m

-

Elyos Energy

London, United Kingdom
2023
Seed

2.7m

2.7m

-

Emulate Energy AB

Lund, Sweden
2020
Seed

5m

3m

-

encentive

Neumünster, Germany
2019
Seed

2.7m

2.7m

-

Encoord

Essen, Germany
2018
Seed

3.3m

2.2m

-

Enee

Manchester, United Kingdom
2019
Grant

2.5m

800k

-

Ener-pacte

Lyon, France
2016
Seed

3.8m

1.6m

-

Enerpoly

Stockholms kommun, Sweden
2018
Grant

14.6m

7.6m

-

Enersee (Formerly Eneos)

City of Brussels, Belgium
2020
Seed

1.2m

1.2m

-

Eneryield

Göteborgs Stad, Sweden
2019
Seed

-

110k

-

ENFASYS

Gijón, Spain, Spain
2019
Pre-seed

500k

400k

-

Enline

Mirandela, Portugal
2018
Seed

4.5m

3.5m

-

Enode

Oslo, Norway
2020
Series A

15.7m

13.6m

-

Faradai

London, United Kingdom
2017

-

3m

-

-

Fever

stockholm, Sweden
2022
Seed

11.5m

10m

-

Flextools

Bærum, Norway
2017
Grant

460k

460k

-

Frequenz

Berlin, Germany
2019
Early VC

10m

10m

-

Fuse Energy

London, United Kingdom
2022
Early VC

27.3m

27.3m

-

Green Fusion

Hohen Neuendorf, Germany
2021
Seed

2.9m

2.7m

-

Gridio

Tallinn, Estonia
2018
Support Program

1.5m

1m

-

Hive Power

Manno, Switzerland
2017
Seed

1m

440k

-

Hybrid Energy Storage Solutions

La Rinconada, Spain
2018
Series A

3m

2.3m

-

IONATE

London, United Kingdom
2019
Seed

4.9m

3.8m

-

measurable.energy

Reading, United Kingdom
2018
Series A

5.4m

5.4m

27m

Metergrid

Stuttgart, Germany
2020
Seed

2.8m

2.7m

-

Nuventura

Berlin , Germany
2017
Series A

30.2m

25m

-

OrxaGrid

London, United Kingdom
2017

-

-

-

-

Ostrom

Berlin, Germany
2021
Series A

21.2m

7.5m

-

phelas

Gilching, Germany
2020
Seed

4.7m

4.1m

-

Plexigrid

Gijon, Spain
2020
Grant

6.4m

2m

-

Purecontrol

Rennes, France
2017
Early VC

8.7m

7m

-

Reel

Copenhagen, Denmark
2020
Seed

7.3m

5m

-

RheEnergise

London, United Kingdom
2019
Seed

13.1m

410k

-

Safegrid

Espoo, Finland
2019
Early VC

7.7m

5.7m

-

Sinergy Flow

Milan, Italy
2022
Seed

1.8m

1.8m

-

Smart & Connective

Nice, France
2021
Seed

1.1m

1.1m

-

SmartPulse Technology Inc.

London, United Kingdom
2018
Series A

1.8m

910k

-

Spot My Energy

Cologne, Germany
2023
Seed

1.6m

1.6m

-

SuperNode

Stepaside, Ireland
2018
Early VC

30m

16m

-

Terra One Climate Solutions GmbH

Berlin, Germany
2022
Seed

7m

7m

-

Tibo Energy

Eindhoven, The Netherlands
2022
Seed

3m

3m

-

TokWise

Sofia, Bulgaria
2018
Seed

3.2m

3m

-

VOLTQUANT

London, United Kingdom
2023
Support Program

-

-

-

Withthegrid

Utrecht, Netherlands
2017
Seed

1m

1m

-

Xunison

Sandyford, Ireland
2016
Seed

3.4m

3.4m

-

Zaphiro technologies

Renens, Switzerland
2017
Grant

11.8m

2.1m

-

Europe’s success stories

Who early stage startups are up against

(Pre-)Seed

SeriesA

SeriesB

SeriesC

SeriesD+

IPO/Exit

The UK’s second-largest energy supplier, which recently reached a valuation of $8bn and recorded over 5m retail customers and 52m accounts.

(Pre-)Seed

SeriesA

SeriesB

SeriesC

SeriesD+

IPO/Exit

Bristol energy supplier — the fourth biggest in the UK — founded by Northern Irish businessman Stephen Fitzpatrick in 2009. Among its investors are Mayfair Equity Partners, Morgan Stanley and Mitsubishi.

Your feedback

How would you rate this briefing?

1
2
3
4
5