O&G giant Shell has backed residential renewables platform GreenCom Network’s €12 million funding round through its investment arm, Shell Ventures.
GreenCom completed its latest equity funding round yesterday (2 December), which will be used to help the company strengthen its position in Europe and expand further afield.
Jurgen Hornman, Shell Ventures’ investment director, said the company appeals to investors as its allows a utility group to “offer integrated home energy solutions” to both residential and commercial consumers, while GreenCom’s previous large-scale partnerships have given it “innovative routes to market”.
“We look forward to supporting GreenCom in its rapid scaling and internationalisation journey.”
GreenCom is the fifth renewable energy company in Shell Ventures’ portfolio, which also includes Sunseap, Sunfunder, SolarNow and d.light.
The home energy management system provider has a track record of attracting investment from utility groups. It secured an undisclosed sum from innogy’s venture capital arm innogy Innovation Hub in May last year, and also counts Centrica, E.On’s Future Energy Ventures, Munich Venture Partners and SET Ventures among its investors.
Japanese equity group Energy & Environment Investment also invested in GreenCom in its latest funding bid, which could help the company expand into the Asian market.
Shuichiro Kawamura, founder and CEO of EEI, said it will connect GreenCom with its own network partners in Japan including large utilities or operators and manufacturers of heat pumps, inverters and battery storage devices.
“We are excited to join one of the most advanced technology companies enabling energy system transition,” Kawamura said.
Christian Feisst, CEO of GreenCom Networks, said Shell’s “long track record” of investment in sustainable businesses will provide the company with “extensive experience in the distributed energy industry”, while EEI brings a “strong gateway to, and profound knowledge of the energy and distributed asset manufacturer landscape in Japan, one of the fastest liberalising and ‘greening’ power markets in the world”.
