Kraken, the energy platform offshoot of Octopus Energy, has announced it has acquired Jedlix, a Netherlands-based smart electric vehicle (EV) charging company.
Jedlix specialises in smart and bidirectional EV charging solutions and has API integration agreements with major firms, including Renault, Hyundai, Kia, and Wallbox. Kraken, meanwhile, uses AI to monitor the grid in real time and automates EV charging to ensure cars are charged with the cheapest, greenest electricity.
Devrim Celal, Kraken’s chief marketing & flexibility officer, said: “Kraken is putting its foot on the accelerator of the EV revolution. The Jedlix team’s proven expertise and development centre in Rotterdam expand our offering and empower our customers to transition to cheaper, cleaner charging.”
Serge Subiron, CEO of Jedlix, added: “We are extremely proud to join the global tech leader of the energy transition, and such an amazing team! Our mission as Jedlix was to enable zero emission and zero cost charging for millions of electric vehicles across all continents. Expanding it to all distributed energy resources in the home at the scale of Kraken is an exciting ambition for the new super-charged team of Kraken in the Netherlands!”
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The Octopus and the EV
Octopus Energy, through its various offshoots, has become a major player in the EV charging market, both in the UK and mainland Europe.
In August, it was revealed that Octopus Electroverse, the public EV charging platform from Octopus, had officially become Europe’s largest consumer charging platform, with almost 850,000 connected chargers across Europe. This is partly attributable to several recent acquisitions from the firm, including ChargePlace Scotland’s integration into Octopus Electroverse, which added access to almost 2,900 EV chargers across Scotland, as well as an earlier deal with charge point operator (CPO) Believ, which added 1,400 new chargers to the system.
Earlier this month, Octopus Energy announced a new partnership with Uber and BYD, said to offer the “UK’s cheapest” EV charging bundle for Uber drivers. Octopus will install up to 1,000 free home chargers for Uber drivers who order a BYD car and sign up to Octopus’ specialised EV tariff, Intelligent Octopus Go. Through this tariff, 150,000 EV batteries are combined into virtual power plants (VPPs) through the Kraken platform, with Octopus now managing a cumulative 1GW of EV batteries.