Ghent’s Companion.energy secures €7.8M for real-time enterprise energy automation
▼ Summary
– Companion Energy secured seed funding led by Realyze Ventures and Pi Labs.
– The funding will support expansion into Germany and Spain.
– Volatile power markets are driving large industrial firms to move past spreadsheet-based energy management.
– Electricity price fluctuations have shifted from seasonal to minute-by-minute changes.
– Spreadsheets are no longer adequate for managing real-time energy needs.
The €7.8 million seed round was co-led by Realyze Ventures and Pi Labs, with the capital earmarked for expansion into Germany and Spain. Volatile power markets have pushed large industrial firms past the limits of traditional spreadsheets. Electricity once followed predictable seasonal patterns. Now, its price and availability shift by the minute, and the legacy tools many factories still depend on simply cannot keep pace.
Ghent-based Companion.energy has developed a real-time enterprise energy automation platform designed to fill that gap. The system monitors live grid conditions and automatically adjusts industrial energy consumption, helping companies avoid peak pricing and reduce waste without manual intervention. For energy-intensive operations, even small inefficiencies can translate into massive costs.
The startup’s technology goes beyond simple monitoring. It actively orchestrates energy use across multiple sites, integrating with existing building management systems to execute automated demand response strategies. This allows industrial players to participate in grid balancing markets while protecting their core production schedules.
With fresh capital, Companion.energy plans to scale its sales and engineering teams across Central Europe. Germany’s manufacturing-heavy economy and Spain’s growing renewable grid present natural opportunities for a platform that thrives on real-time energy optimization. The company’s approach reflects a broader shift: as power markets grow more complex, the companies that win will be those that automate, not just observe.
(Source: The Next Web)
