Liverpool-based EnviroTech 50 startup Heatio has secured £2 million in investment, marking a significant milestone in its mission to make clean energy more accessible and affordable.
Founded in 2022 by Simon Roberts and Thomas Farquhar, Heatio is revolutionising home energy management with smart home energy platform, Heatio Flexx.
This home energy platform, connected to Heatio’s Virtual Power Plant, optimises and manages renewable technologies like solar panels, heat pumps, EV chargers, and batteries.
Using AI and machine learning, Heatio Flexx also provides tailored energy solutions based on the property type and how much energy individual households use, making the property more efficient and enabling consumers to save money on their energy bills.
The oversubscribed investment round was led by Ascension, with support from a number of co-investors, including Conduit Connect, The Syndicate Room, Baltic Ventures, LYVA Labs and DeepTech investor Neil Norman.
The investment will be used to expand the Heatio team, launch version 2 of the Heatio Flexx app and scale the onboarding process for new customers.
It will also support Heatio’s delivery of two contracts within the government’s Net Zero Portfolio. Working with E.ON and Energy Systems Catapult, Heatio will provide a new renewable technology subscription called Energy as a Service (EaaS), in a pilot contract for 350 homes in the North West that will eliminate upfront costs for consumers considering heat pumps, solar PV, or battery storage.
Heatio, which featured on our EnviroTech 50 ranking this year, is also working in partnership with Perenna Bank and Energy Systems Catapult to launch a long-term fixed-rate green mortgage that rewards homeowners with a preferential interest rate for retrofitting their homes with low-carbon technologies, driven by the Heatio Flexx platform.
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“Our ability to help homeowners access affordable energy via our Flexx platform and virtual power plant drives energy security and helps the UK get to a clean, green future,” said CEO Roberts. “When we launched Heatio two years ago, our priority was to help more consumers access green technology and reduce the use of fossil fuels to decarbonise their homes.
“Through this investment, we are moving closer to making that a reality. We are looking forward to driving our expansion and working with industry leaders and would like to extend our appreciation to every investor for helping us get where we are today.”
Jean de Fougerolles, managing partner at Ascension, will join the Heatio board.
“We are thrilled to be supporting Heatio in its mission to reduce energy costs and democratise access to renewable sources of energy for the home,” he said.
“With the typical annual household bill having increased by 49% since pre-crisis levels, the scale of the problem is massive, and Heatio’s innovative solution is uniquely positioned to address it through a partner based business model that simultaneously helps the UK move towards the Net Zero goal. We look forward to helping the team achieve its vision.”