ČEZ has invested in the Swedish startup Eliq through its fund Inven Capital. Inven became the leading investor in the Series A round of five million euros. Contrarian Ventures and other investors also took part. Eliq has collected nine million euros in all rounds so far.
To acquire the minority stake, Inven Capital has partially used funds from the European Investment Bank, which has committed EUR 50 million for joint investments.
Eliq offers software to monitor electricity usage and demand patterns. It takes information from smart metering, connected devices and weather analytics and interprets this to provide instant energy insights and promote efficiency. Eliq has over a million customers.
“Eliq represents the future of communication between energy companies and their customers. It builds on combining and analysing data from various sources and the active approach of households with respect to monitoring consumption. As a result, utilities can offer effective services and be reliable partners to their customers when seeking suitable cost-saving solutions. We see future potential in Eliq applications even for CEZ Group companies,” said Tomáš Pleskač, a Member of the Board of Directors of CEZ and Chief Renewable Energy and Distribution Officer.
Eliq is Inven Capital’s seventh investment to date. “We were amazed by how Eliq is lowering the churn rate of their utility customers, for some by up to 70%. They are enabling to build deep trust between the utility and the end consumer which is manifested by the steep increase in engagement rate and interaction time – in some cases tenfold,” said Petr Míkovec, Managing Director of Inven Capital.
Eliq plans to use the additional funds for continuous expansion on the European market and for further development of its products. “We enable utilities to become a meaningful part of customers’ lives and ultimately help accelerate the Energy Transition from within those customers’ homes. The new funds will enable us to bring more solutions to market quickly, and to broaden our geographical reach by growing the teams both at our Gothenburg headquarters and our London operations,” says Håkan Ludvigson, CEO and co-founder of Eliq.