In a tech-driven society, how we generate and manage our energy will be a key factor in addressing the climate crisis. At Antler’s European Founders Conference, held at London’s Mansion House, TFN met Mohamed Gaafar, co-founder and CEO of Gryd Energy, a startup that’s helping householders not just generate energy, but also contribute to their own neighbourhood grids.
We spoke about his background in engineering, the vision behind Gryd, and his guidance for other founders. Watch the full interview below:
Foundations in years of civil engineering
Gaafar’s background was in the energy sector as a civil engineer. “I spent six years designing and managing engineering and energy projects in the UK and abroad, at almost every scale of development, and with some really high-profile clients,” he said. But despite that challenge that offered him, like many founders, he wanted to create something of his own. “I wanted to do something more impactful, more disruptive, and more scalable.”
Gaafar had experience on a range of major power projects, and knew he wanted to work in that space. His first step was with Zinc VC, an accelerator focused on the environment. “I didn’t co-found through that programme, but built up additional resilience, knowledge and network,” he told us. He took that to an Antler residency and, meeting his co-founders Scott Whiteside and Tom Jordan, came up with the idea for Gryd.
Some of the inspiration came from the spiralling energy costs that the UK was experiencing at the time. Although Gaafar had worked on major projects, he started to think about energy closer to home. “I was fascinated with the human element, how are homeowners going to navigate the cost of energy?” he said. “And the frustration that the technology exists for us to be able to have more affordable and clean energy is not being adopted because it’s not accessible. It’s not affordable.”
The battle against rising energy costs
Gryd addresses those challenges uniquely. By installing solar panels on properties, energy can be generated. However, rather than taking the traditional approach of feeding that energy back into the national grid, it is stored in batteries at the property. This energy can then be used by the householder later, reducing their dependence on traditional supply, or form part of a reserve for a local power network.
Gryd is initially focusing on new-build properties. “We acquire developers, and we deploy solar across their entire development,” he explained. “Then we then become the homeowners’ energy supplier once they move in.” It means that Gryd has the potential to deploy at scale, and does not have to overcome the hurdle of requiring expensive investment from homeowners. “The key part of us being a service provider means we actually own, operate, and optimise the systems for the entire 25-year lifespan. So a homeowner isn’t required to do the operations and maintenance.”
The company is currently at various stages with several pilots. “The three-home pilot has been live for a few months now in Cornwall,” he said. “And it’s been a great learning experience in terms of the data that we are getting out of that. But also, we are using that leveraging it to build the first version of the customer app.”
They are now preparing larger pilots, but already beginning to plan for a wide-scale deployment of the Gryd system. “Property developers now have to reduce the CO₂ per new home and deploy renewables, which squeezes their margin. So we’re finding is developers are desperate to work with us at Gryd,” Gaafar tells us. “250,000 new-build homes are built in the UK every single year. And our target is to get to a total of 50,000 after year five.”
The company is also attracting investors, and Gaafar is welcoming new investors as he closes their pre-seed round, and looking forward to a bigger investment round in the first half of 2025.
Gryd’s unique solution to energy generation and storage
Gaafar acknowledges his fortune in starting Gryd. “Being able to take risks can be extremely challenging for diverse founders, particularly from low socio-economic backgrounds,” he said, added that programmes like Antler’s were “great entry points for first-time founders or founders from diverse backgrounds.” A key benefit of similar programmes is the ability to seek and get the advice of founders who had gone before.
However, perhaps his main advice is to be authentic. “You have to have that conviction in yourself that this thing is going to work, no matter what. You can’t fake that,” he said. Most importantly, he added, you need that conviction to take the first step. “Too many people spend time in the ‘wantrapreneur’ phase,” he said. “At some point, you just have to take the risk because, otherwise, you’ll spend the rest of your life thinking about it.”
This article is part of a media partnership with Antler. For partnering opportunities, contact [email protected] or [email protected].
