Energy infrastructure firm Smart Metering Systems has revealed strategic investment into two startups.
The Glasgow company, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, owns and manages meter assets, energy data, grid scale batteries and other carbon reduction assets.
The investments are intended to boost its offering in electric vehicle charging infrastructure and energy data management.
SMS has invested an initial £2 million to acquire a 25% shareholding in Clenergy EV, a software business with a charge point operator platform focused on EV charging infrastructure.
Clenergy EV’s customer base is in the public charging and fleet sectors, with its platform currently being used in more than 1,000 EV chargers across the UK.
SMS has the option to invest a further £2m after one year, leading to the acquisition of an additional 26% interest, and has an option to acquire the remaining shares after five years.
SMS has separately acquired 100% of n3rgy, a data software company, for a cash consideration of £1.4m.
n3rgy’s software-as-a-service platform enables and facilitates the use of energy consumption, generation and tariff data from smart meters. This data is then used for settlement, billing, energy management and a growing market of wider applications and services.
An additional £800,000 deferred consideration will be payable by SMS subject to n3rgy achieving certain performance targets.
“These two strategic investments are highly complementary to the existing SMS business and will significantly enhance our propositions in EV charging and energy data management, continuing the momentum in developing our CaRe products and services,” said SMS CEO Tim Mortlock.
“Our investment in Clenergy EV will help to accelerate our advancement into the highly attractive EV charging market and the acquisition of n3rgy enables us to build on our strong existing position in energy data solutions.”