Octopus Energy has continued its international expansion, acquiring the German green energy group 4hundred for an undisclosed fee.
4hundred, launched in 2017, professes to be Germany’s first digital-first energy provider, and supplies renewable power to around 11,000 customers. Those customers, as well as 4hundred’s 26-strong staff, will be transferred to Octopus Energy and its data and service platform Kraken.
The deal was effective as of 4 September 2019 and Greg Jackson, chief executive at Octopus Energy, said the acquisition was an exciting step in its bid to “continue globalising our disruptive approach to energy”.
“Our technology is helping drive the affordable green energy revolution in the UK, and is now going to do the same in Australia and Germany with many more countries to follow.”
Octopus entered the Australian market earlier this year through a partnership with Hanwha Group, the South Korean conglomerate perhaps best known in clean energy circles for its Q CELLS brand of solar PV technologies.
Ilona Ludewig and Andrew Mack, founders at 4hundred, said the company’s values – “doing good, being honest and treating people fairly” – would continue to resonate throughout the firm, and that its use of technology to deliver a “continuously evolving” offering is something it shared with Octopus.
The deal is not 4hundred’s first link with a UK energy supplier, however. In 2018 OVO acquired a stake in the supplier, prior to the investment OVO received from Mitsubishi earlier this year. That deal triggered OVO to divest its interest in 4hundred, with the company now set to re-enter the German market.
