Berlin-based Ostrom, a smart energy green provider, has raised a further €9.3 million in a Series A round to expand its offerings for consumers. The round was backed by Adjacent and Union Square Ventures, who joined existing investors 468 Capital, J12 Ventures and Übermorgen Ventures.
Previous angel investors include early-stage investors & Doppelgänger TechTalk Podcast hosts Philip Klöckner and Philipp Glöckler, Dance and SoundCloud co-founders Eric Quidenus-Wahlforss and Alexander Ljung, Gorillas co-founder Jörg Kattner, HelloFresh Global CMO Maximilian Backhaus, Konfetti founder Tobi Fezer, Tourlane co-founder & CEO Julian Weselek, fintech Moss founders Ante Spittler, Anton Rummel, Ferdinand Meyer & Stephan Haslebacher, GoTiger co-founder Yang Zou, NFQ and Alaiko Founder Harald Braunstein, Home-to-Go Founder Patrick Andrä, venture studio MVP Factory, early-stage investor Shio Capital, impact investor Friedrich Neuman, and influencer and entrepreneur Diana Zur Löwen.
This brings the total funding of Ostrom close to €14 million. Founded by Matthias Martensen and Karl Villanueva, the new funding will be used to broaden its offering, including smart meter support, real-time dynamic pricing tariffs, electric vehicle (EV) charging, heat pump optimisation and more.
Also, with the investment, Ostrom aims to at least double the current team in the next two years with a strong focus on product and tech. In addition, the company will further develop its smart energy management solutions to cement its frontrunner status in the smart meter and dynamic pricing rollout in Germany.
Energy crisis calls for smart energy solutions
For many, the backdrop in 2022 could not have been tougher: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent weaponisation of energy supplies with Nord Stream 1 and 2 has caught Europe off-guard. The insufficient diversification and transition to renewables have led to a scramble for new supplier relationships. In Germany, the continued lack of digitalisation in the industry is leaving plenty of potential savings, both money and energy, on the table for consumers.
As renewables increase in prevalence, a decentralised grid increases the volatility of supply. At the same time, the electrification wave — with EVs and heat pumps — vastly increases demand. Providing transparency and real-time feedback to customers about their energy usage is paramount to helping avert another energy crisis in the future.
“The fact that energy providers today make their margins through a markup on energy is not aligned with the consumers’ (nor our climate’s) interest of reducing consumption. Ostrom solves this with a more aligned business model that sells energy at cost and enables a more sustainable future. I am very happy to support the team on that mission,” said, Nico Wittenborn, Investor at Adjacent.
Uses less energy
Incentives for traditional energy providers and consumers have always been at odds. The current equation — more power used equals more revenues — is no longer tenable.
In contrast, Ostrom has an electricity-at-cost business model, with just a flat monthly fee. This aligns the incentives for the company, consumers and the climate — creating a trusted brand in an industry plagued by mistrust.
“Ostrom’s electricity-at-cost model structurally aligns the company with its customers, incentivising all to reduce energy consumption. Furthermore, the beautiful, easy-to-use app paired with renewable energy sources makes it easy to optimise energy usage. We are thrilled to support the company in its next phase of growth,” said, Nick Grossman, General Partner at Union Square Ventures.
Available across Germany, Ostrom now has customers in over 1,500 cities and towns and clients from over 400 other energy suppliers — firmly placing Ostrom among the top 10% of energy providers in the country.
“We always started off with the idea to fundamentally align our incentives with our consumers, to make sure they use as little energy and save as much money as possible. We have started rolling out dynamic pricing tariffs thanks to our collaboration with the grid providers in Germany on smart meter data, providing the basis for our energy management platform. At Ostrom, we are leading this change to further the energy transition!” said, Matthias Martensen, co-founder at Ostrom.
“We are seeing how our business model, our app, all our in-house automations and the platform built by our amazing team provide the foundation to help our customers save more energy. While others still think like old-school utilities, we have always thought of Ostrom as an experience. So far, we have created a brand that our customers truly love and trust. We have a ton of ideas on our roadmap and we can’t wait to roll these out to our users!” said Karl Villanueva, co-founder at Ostrom.
