- Summiteer leads the round, other investors include Smart Infrastructure Ventures, Vireo Ventures, Interface Capital and business angels such as the Enerparc founders around Stefan Müller, the ProGlove founders and football player & investor Mario Götze.
- encentive has developed AI-based software that automatically shifts industrial electricity consumption to periods of surplus renewable energy, resulting in significant cost and emissions savings.
- Well-known customers such as the Wernsing Food Family, the dairy company Ornua and leading logistic companies are already using the solution.
Schleswig-Holstein/Hamburg, 22.01.2024 encentive, a pioneering start-up in the field of AI-based energy optimization for industrial applications, has successfully raised 2.7 million euros in its current seed investment round. The round was led by Summiteer – the investment company of serial entrepreneur and e-mobility pioneer Sven Schulz, which has already invested in Enpal and neoom, among others. Further investors include Vireo Ventures, Smart Infrastructure Ventures, Interface Capital (the investment company of Blinkist founder Niklas Jansen and Wunderlist founder Christian Reber) and OMA Ventures (the investment company of the Proglove founders). encentive receives additional support from renowned business angels, such as the Enerparc founders around Stefan Müller and football player & investor Mario Götze, as well as existing investors. As renewable energy generation is expanded, the investors are backing a technology that is urgently needed by industrial companies, enabling them to react intelligently to increasing fluctuations in energy prices and availability.
Since its inception at the end of 2020, encentive has focused on the intelligent control and flexibilization of energy consumption into clean & cheap time periods with an abundant supply of renewable energy. At the heart of the technology is the AI-based software platform flexOn, which is integrated into the existing infrastructure of industrial customers and serves as a central operating system for intelligent energy management. flexOn already enables savings of around 20% and a significant, measurable reduction in CO2 through AI-driven analysis and automation.
encentive has already successfully demonstrated the use of its solution in the food industry and refrigerated logistics. Customers include large corporate groups such as the Wernsing Food Family and Ornua or well-known logistics companies, which are able to operate their refrigerated warehouses as dynamic energy storage facilities using the encentive solution. The ongoing electrification of industry, particularly in the heating and mobility sectors, means that encentive’s customers will be able to benefit even more from this powerful technology in the future.
The company began by optimizing industrial cooling and heating processes. The range has since been expanded to include other controllable systems and industrial processes. With the new capital, encentive plans to further roll out its software platform and reach more customer groups, as well as extend their interface into the energy system.
Torge Lahrsen, co-founder and Managing Director, emphasizes the need to align energy consumption with renewable energy production in the course of the decarbonization of industry. „Our vision is the complete decarbonization of industry. We provide our industrial customers with a holistic solution that aligns all relevant energy flows bidirectionally with the availability of renewable energy locally at their own site and in the markets. We are thus defining a new way for industry to consume energy transparently, predictably and independently.“
„Many companies possess a wide range of energy buffer and storage options which enable them to compensate and utilize fluctuations in renewable energy generation to their advantage. encentive harnesses this potential in a simple and modular way without interfering with companies‘ existing processes. In this way, industrial customers save a lot of money and help to integrate more renewable energy into our energy system. That’s what convinced us in the end,“ says Dominik Bär, Partner at Summiteer.
Matthias Engel, Partner at Vireo Ventures, adds: „In the future, we will have to consume energy primarily when it is available from renewable sources. Energy flexibilization is a key component for a successful energy transition. encentive provides an impressive technology for industrial energy management and is far ahead of other solutions.“
„This investment round marks a significant milestone for encentive,“ comments Daniel Ehnes, also Co-Founder and Managing Director of encentive. „We are now in a position to make our outstanding software and solution available to a wider range of industrial customers and thus significantly advance the energy transition. We are grateful for the support of our valued investors who have truly understood the importance of the industrial energy transition. We look forward to the developments ahead.“
encentive is a company from Schleswig-Holstein and provides a solution that reduces energy costs and emissions in industry. The company uses AI-based data analysis and automation to shift the electricity consumption of existing infrastructure into clean & cheap time periods with an abundant supply of renewable energy. The core element is the software flexOn, which acts as an intelligent control system, coordinating energy flows bidirectionally with the availability of renewable energy production locally at its own site and within the markets, using existing infrastructure, flexible loads and energy storage potential across all sectors.