In a seed financing round, the software company Encentive raised €6.3 million in capital. The startup headquartered in Neumünster announced this on September 15. According to them, the financing round was led by the US investor General Catalyst and was accompanied by other existing investors. The startup's AI-powered platform enables industrial companies to automatically reduce their energy costs by up to 20 percent while also reducing their CO2 emissions.
A trillion-dollar market to be tapped
Given rising costs and growing pressure to act due to climate change, a trillion-dollar market opens up here. With the investment, the company plans, according to its own statements, to further develop its AI-powered platform, connect additional industrial facilities, tap new markets, and sustainably strengthen its technological leadership. At the start of 2024 Encentive had already received €2.7 million from investors Summiteer, SI Ventures, Vireo Ventures, Interface Capital, OMA Ventures, as well as from well-known business angels such as Mario Götze and Christian Reber.
“Rising energy costs and the increasing pressure to decarbonize are challenges that nearly
every industrial company faces today. Companies that are not able to automate and intelligently manage their energy flows and adjust their consumption to the volatile generation from renewable energy threaten their competitiveness already today. Our solution enables the flexibilization potential to be economically utilized and to adapt to the fluctuating availability of renewable energy without interfering with existing processes. In this way, our customers secure themselves against economic uncertainties and site disadvantages in the long term,” explains Torge Lahrsen, COO of Encentive.
With “flexOn” Encentive has developed an AI-powered software solution that enables industrial companies to flexibly control their energy consumption, reduce their electricity costs by up to 20 percent, and significantly reduce their CO2 emissions, the press release says. The platform, according to the company, uses the existing flexibility in batteries as well as cooling, heating, and production processes, creates intelligent schedules, and automates the control of plants and processes.
With the help of AI-powered data analysis and optimization algorithms, energy flows in plants and processes would be adjusted in real
time to the availability of renewable energy. In this way, companies could access on-site self-generated or market-tradable electricity on the energy exchange exactly when wind and solar power are particularly inexpensive and abundantly available. FlexOn will be deployed mainly by medium-sized and industrial companies with an annual consumption of at least two gigawatt-hours (GWh), according to Encentive.
Logistics and industrial companies are using the solution
According to the start-up, the solution is already in use with companies such as Metro Logistics, Dachser and Klingele and is used by well-known energy providers as a flexibility platform. To tap additional industries and markets, Encentive is investing the additional financial resources in more staff as well as in expanding central areas of its platform. This will enable major customers and partners to independently integrate flexOn using an onboarding suite in the future.
“With the fresh capital, we are intentionally investing in the further development of our platform and the expansion of our team. Together, we are driving the only AI to date that directly operates
in the machine room of industry to actively control plants, further advancing technological benchmarks. Our vision is to become the leading address for the control of energy flows in industry. The seven-figure order volume from our core sectors already underscores the success of our solution and confirms our aim to establish flexOn as the standard for intelligent energy management – scalable and deeply integrated,” says Nicolás Juhl, CEO of Encentive.
“For European industry, energy has become a central competitive factor. In a time of volatility and sustainable transformation, it is no longer merely a minor cost position, but a decisive factor for the long-term success of a company,” explains Robin Dechant, partner at General Catalyst. “Encentive turns this risk factor into an opportunity: With the AI-powered platform, industrial companies can reduce their costs while also relying on renewable energy. What impressed us most was the team’s rare ability to unite state-of-the-art AI with the concrete requirements of industry. It is exactly this combination that strengthens Europe’s industrial backbone and accelerates the energy
