Centrica-backed IoT specialist GreenCom Networks has snapped up Shine, the energy management services company launched by innogy Innovation Hub.
GreenCom is to integrate Shine’s energy management service suite into its own, while the firm will also benefit from access to Shine’s established customer base in its native German market.
The move will allow GreenCom to offer end-to-end customer-facing services on top of its Internet of Things platform, enabling the integration of clean technologies like solar PV, battery storage and electric vehicle charges.
The deal also supports GreenCom’s bid to demonstrate a raft of “disruptive services” for homeowners that the company intends to go beyond the “flat-rate” offerings currently in the market, before extending them to the company’s own utility partners.
Christian Feißt, chief executive at GreenCom Networks, said the acquisition was “perfect” for his company to demonstrate how disruptive energy management services could be offered to retail customers.
The deal comes just two months after major utility Centrica confirmed an investment in GreenCom as part of its Centrica Innovations drive, a move which the former intends to help educate its own customer-facing offering as it pivots away from centralised energy.
That Shine is the product of innogy’s Innovation Hub – with innogy a rival to Centrica’s utility business – renders the transaction doubly interesting.
Patrick Elftmann, investment partner at innogy Innovation Hub, described Shine as one of the firm’s “speed boats”.
“We are happy that Shine can now take the next step and become part of GreenCom. Such a combination provides a unique end-to-end offering of technology and end-customer experience that will ensure success in a future digital energy market,” he added.
