Energy Platform tem. Secures £10.5m to Make Renewable Power Affordable and Accessible for UK Businesses

London, United Kingdom, September 11th, 2024 — tem., the AI transactions platform that enables UK businesses to buy energy directly from renewable generators for less than the cost of traditional fossil fuels, has secured an £10.5m Series A round, accelerating its mission to reshape the UK’s energy landscape. This investment, led by European VC Atomico, with participation from existing investors AlbionVC and Revent, and joined by notable angels Holly and Sam Branson and Wise CTO Harsh Sinha and CPO Nilan Peiris, brings tem.’s total funding to £13m and positions the company at the forefront of the UK’s urgent transition to sustainable energy. As part of this round, Atomico Partner Terese Hougaard will join tem.’s board.

tem.’s growth comes as the global economy scrambles to meet 2050 climate targets. Skyrocketing oil and gas prices have crystallised the business need to find alternatives to fossil fuels. With UK businesses facing electricity price hikes of 63% and gas price increases of 124% between Q3 2021 and Q3 2022, the need for affordable, stable energy sources has never been more pressing.

tem.’s proprietary algorithm is revolutionising the energy market by directly matching businesses with renewable energy generators in real-time. tem.’s AI engine forecasts fluctuations within energy supply and demand, processing 1.8 billion matches every second. This innovative approach not only bypasses the inefficient wholesale market but also promises to save businesses up to 25% on their energy bills while providing 100% traceable, renewable energy.

“Small and medium-sized businesses are critical in tackling climate change, and are desperate for energy they can trust after seeing their bills soar by 124% during the recent energy crisis.  We built tem. so that any UK business can get affordable energy while powering the clean energy transition from their doorstep” 

Joe McDonald, tem. CEO and co-founder

Among tem.’s customers is iconic British racing track Silverstone.

“working with tem, we are now paying less for fully traceable renewable energy, while putting more money back into the pockets of generators, hugely helping our business reduce its carbon footprint – which is a high priority for our company.”

Stephane Bazire, Head of Business Sustainability at Silverstone

The investment comes as the UK rapidly expands its renewable energy capacity, with renewables in 2023 constituting around 40% of the electricity mix, up from approximately 11% in 2014, and only 2.8% at the turn of the millennium. In Q1 2024, renewables reached 50.9% of total generation.

tem.’s platform is uniquely primed for this growth, connecting businesses directly with the burgeoning network of over 22,000 small, medium, and large renewable generators across the country. This newly decentralised supply is being created from everything from large-scale wind farms to family-owned solar parks and local weirs generating hydropower.

But to date only megacorporations – able to negotiate complex Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) directly with these generators – have been in a position to truly benefit. 99% of UK businesses have no option but to purchase energy from the wholesale market, the same way of procuring energy since the 80’s. This is an opaque, inefficient and volatile market, where middlemen capture £1.65bn each year in transaction fees at the expense of the end customer, and businesses lack meaningful transparency or control over their energy mix.

“tem. has not only seen impressive growth to date; the future potential is massive with $1trn in direct renewable energy transactions to unlock globally. With their deep energy experience and expertise from Limejump and Shell, nobody is better placed than Joe, Jason, Ross and Bartek to seize this opportunity.”

Atomico partner Terese Hougaard

About tem.

tem. was founded in 2021 by four former Limejump employees; Joe McDonald, Jason Stocks, Bartlomiej Szostek, and Ross Mackay, who saw first hand the inefficiencies and inflated costs of transacting through the wholesale market. With a big mission to democratise renewable energy and accelerate the clean energy transition, their platform uses a unique matching algorithm to make energy transactions affordable, smarter and 100% traceable for any business owner and renewable generator across the UK.

About Atomico

Atomico invests in ambitious tech founders from Seed through to IPO with a particular focus on Europe, leveraging deep operational experience to supercharge their growth. Founded in 2006, Atomico has partnered with over 100 ambitious teams – including those at Klarna, Supercell, Graphcore, Compass, MessageBird, Masterclass, Attentive Mobile, Pipedrive and Hinge Health. Atomico’s team of founders, investors and operational leaders have been responsible for global expansion, hiring and marketing at companies from Skype and Google to Twitter and Uber. The firm currently has $5B in assets under management.