Exnaton closes Seed funding round to develop a platform for the energy landscape of tomorrow
18.08.2021
Climetech startup Exnaton has closed a successful Seed funding round that will drive the ETH Zurich spin-off’s growth in new national markets. Global Founders Capital (GFC), one of the largest German venture capital funds, takes on the role as the lead investor: In addition to fresh capital for further growth, GFC brings in its extensive experience from the successful scaling of online business models (e.g., Zalando, Delivery Hero or Hello Fresh) and supports Exnaton in the search for talent with its global network. The goal of the partnership is to establish a software platform that enables the setup and operation of energy communities. Exnaton was a Venture Kick winner in 2020.
 The Exnaton co-founders (from left to right): Dr. Anselma Wörner, Dr. Arne Meeuw, and Dr. Liliane Ableitner
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Exnaton convinced investors with its software “PowerQuartier.” The platform offers unprecedented insight into their own energy consumption by enabling its users to buy renewable energy from local sources. For instance, household A can buy green electricity directly from its neighboring household B, which has a solar system. Thus, investing in renewable energy becomes easy, engaging, and fun.
Exnaton sells PowerQuartier to utility companies in a software-as-a-service model to aid them in their transformation towards the digital age where new customer needs in a decentralized energy market take center stage. The software bills energy flows digitally and optimizes consumption and supply dynamically at the local level. PowerQuartier creates value from smart meter data and builds the foundation of digital services for energy consumers, such as personalized analyses and remote access to resources like battery storage.
Disruption in the energy sector
Actively contributing to the energy transition must become easier and more financially attractive for the general population, and the energy market must adapt to the decentralized electricity production through renewables such as wind and solar. In its latest regulations, the European Union is taking a local approach to make renewables more attractive and provides incentives for consuming electricity when it is produced within local energy communities. Based on these regulations, PowerQuartier enables households to become energy traders themselves, jointly, in local energy communities.
Exnaton places great focus on the user experience. “We are given the opportunity to turn the way we consume and produce energy into something tangible and interesting, even for the average household. We strive to turn this into reality for all energy customers,” said CTO and co-founder Dr. Arne Meeuw. The PowerQuartier app helps users to easily buy renewable energy and to reduce their carbon footprint in the long term. The first users are already enthusiastic electricity traders, but that’s not enough for the team. “We are successively extending our platform with new functionalities. We want to make it as easy as possible to set up local energy communities, regardless of the hardware that users have installed.”
New market with enormous potential
Global Founders Capital (GFC) sees great potential for digital solutions in the energy market and is leading the financing round. “We are convinced that decentralized energy systems, meaning intelligently networked solar installations on buildings, battery storage, and charging infrastructure, will be an essential part of the new energy world. While we have come a long way ‘behind-the-meter,’ exciting business models ‘in front-of-the-meter’ are still largely untouched. This is where Exnaton’s solution comes in, enabling the creation and operation of ‘real’ energy communities and making renewable energy marketable in a decentralized way. We are very much looking forward to supporting the team on their further journey towards a transformed energy market,” said Dr. Jan Ossenbrink, Partner for Sustainability and ClimeTech at GFC. Just earlier this year, Exnaton announced a pre-seed round with business angels from the industry.
The fresh capital will be used to drive Exnaton’s growth in new national markets. In Switzerland and Austria, the startup has already convinced several utility customers. In addition, Exnaton has entered into a partnership with SAP and offers an integration of PowerQuartier into the SAP landscape. Now the Venture Kick winner 2020 is looking to tap into additional markets and expand its user base. Exnaton will therefore also expand the team in the coming months, especially in the areas of business development and software development.
The Exnaton co-founders (from left to right): Dr. Anselma Wörner, Dr. Arne Meeuw, and Dr. Liliane Ableitner
Exnaton sells PowerQuartier to utility companies in a software-as-a-service model to aid them in their transformation towards the digital age where new customer needs in a decentralized energy market take center stage. The software bills energy flows digitally and optimizes consumption and supply dynamically at the local level. PowerQuartier creates value from smart meter data and builds the foundation of digital services for energy consumers, such as personalized analyses and remote access to resources like battery storage.
Disruption in the energy sector
Actively contributing to the energy transition must become easier and more financially attractive for the general population, and the energy market must adapt to the decentralized electricity production through renewables such as wind and solar. In its latest regulations, the European Union is taking a local approach to make renewables more attractive and provides incentives for consuming electricity when it is produced within local energy communities. Based on these regulations, PowerQuartier enables households to become energy traders themselves, jointly, in local energy communities.
Exnaton places great focus on the user experience. “We are given the opportunity to turn the way we consume and produce energy into something tangible and interesting, even for the average household. We strive to turn this into reality for all energy customers,” said CTO and co-founder Dr. Arne Meeuw. The PowerQuartier app helps users to easily buy renewable energy and to reduce their carbon footprint in the long term. The first users are already enthusiastic electricity traders, but that’s not enough for the team. “We are successively extending our platform with new functionalities. We want to make it as easy as possible to set up local energy communities, regardless of the hardware that users have installed.”
New market with enormous potential
Global Founders Capital (GFC) sees great potential for digital solutions in the energy market and is leading the financing round. “We are convinced that decentralized energy systems, meaning intelligently networked solar installations on buildings, battery storage, and charging infrastructure, will be an essential part of the new energy world. While we have come a long way ‘behind-the-meter,’ exciting business models ‘in front-of-the-meter’ are still largely untouched. This is where Exnaton’s solution comes in, enabling the creation and operation of ‘real’ energy communities and making renewable energy marketable in a decentralized way. We are very much looking forward to supporting the team on their further journey towards a transformed energy market,” said Dr. Jan Ossenbrink, Partner for Sustainability and ClimeTech at GFC. Just earlier this year, Exnaton announced a pre-seed round with business angels from the industry.
The fresh capital will be used to drive Exnaton’s growth in new national markets. In Switzerland and Austria, the startup has already convinced several utility customers. In addition, Exnaton has entered into a partnership with SAP and offers an integration of PowerQuartier into the SAP landscape. Now the Venture Kick winner 2020 is looking to tap into additional markets and expand its user base. Exnaton will therefore also expand the team in the coming months, especially in the areas of business development and software development.
The Exnaton co-founders (from left to right): Dr. Anselma Wörner, Dr. Arne Meeuw, and Dr. Liliane Ableitner