Company: Octopus Energy
Company Description: Octopus Energy is a Top 5 UK energy supplier with 3.2m customers - and a further 25m contracted accounts globally via licensing, Founded in 2016 by Greg Jackson, Octopus Energy has 3000 employees across expanding operations in 14 countries - proud to be the UK’s most awarded energy supplier in 2020 and 2021 - including the ONLY UK energy provider recommended by Which? for five years running.
Nomination Category: Company / Organization Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Energy Industry Innovation of the Year
 Nomination Title: Octopus Energy
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length about the achievements of the nominated organization since 1 January 2020, OR written answers to the questions for this category? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this first question: Briefly describe the nominated organization: its history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 200 words used.
Our History
Octopus Energy launched in 2016 on a mission to use technology for good, with a new low-cost, customer-centric model that tackles climate change. Underpinning stellar success is Kraken, our unique end-to-end EnTech platform - now licensed to global energy providers. Kraken leverages game-changing efficiencies from advanced data and machine learning capabilities to convert into a world-class model - at 50% lower cost than rivals.
Past Performance FYE19-20
Our innovation journey quickly achieved outstanding success and by FYE20 we’d reached the following milestones:
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Customers, turnover and team growth - 1.45m UK customers (up 123% from FYE19), [REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION] and 595 employees (up 95%)
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Expanding nationally across the UK
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Expanding internationally by acquiring 4Hundred (Germany)
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ONLY UK energy supplier recommended by Which? for four years in a row (now 5)
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New licensing model:. Launching Kraken Technologies in 2019/20, we set up licensing partnerships with Good Energy, Australia’s Hanwha and Origin Energy, transforming their businesses to be leaner and greener for their customers
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Constant innovation stream: Launching world-first tariffs including AgileOctopus, our time-of-use tariff, which unlocks energy at its cheapest/most abundant, even paying customers to use surplus energy generated - supporting a smarter, greener grid for ALL.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this second question: Outline the organization's achievements since the beginning of 2020 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 249 words used.
We’re proud to be trailblazers in bringing affordable green energy to the public. Just some recent achievements include:
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Widely heralded as a positive force for change: described by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a “leader in the path to net zero” in 2020, and by former US Vice President Al Gore as ”a true enabler of a sustainable system led by a mission-driven team” upon our partnership with Generation Investment Management in 2021
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Accelerating the world to net zero: Partnering with global energy providers, including EON, Tokyo Gas and EDF, now with 25m contracted customer accounts on our platform - on track to reach 100m by 2027
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$6bn pledged (to date) to decarbonise our energy systems faster: including £10m Electrification of Heat Centre, £5m Centre for Net Zero, and purchasing sister company Octopus Renewables ($3bn renewable asset portfolio) - becoming Europe’s largest investor in solar
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$5bn valuation: rivalling market leader Centrica, owner of British Gas
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Global expansion with operations spanning 14 countries and 5 continents
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Top 5 UK energy provider with 3.1m+ customers (7%+ market share)
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ONLY UK energy supplier recommended by Which? for five years running
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From 300 to 3000 employees in 3 years
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3000 applications for our 2022 heat pump engineer training programme for 1000 places a year, doubling UK’s current capacity in year 1
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Highly rated by employees, including: Top 5 ‘Best Large Companies to Work For’ (Q1 2022), ‘Best Place to Work’ (Glassdoor), Top 5 for Work-Life balance (Glassdoor), and 8/10 ‘Great’ (Officevibe).
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this third question: Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the organization's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 249 words used.
NO energy supplier is innovating, growing or investing as much as we are to drive the low-cost green revolution. We’re ALWAYS here to support all our customers through ALL market conditions - with care and compassion every step of the way.
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Innovative energy blueprint for the world: Kraken’s data capabilities are empowering the public with cheaper, greener energy, plus creating a globally-applicable licensing model to help other utility suppliers to emulate our impact - to accelerate to net zero emissions and lower business running costs.
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From seed to $5bn in 6 years: In 2020, we became one of the UK’s fastest-growing private companies, securing the biggest investment rounds for any impact startup ($577m), further raising $900m in 2021/2. In 2021 and 2022 we ranked in FT1000: Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies
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Increasingly matching demand with supply: We purchased our sister company to build capacity to directly power 50m customers by 2027 (50% of our target). Today we supply 1.5m+ homes directly.
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Unrivalled Business-as-Usual service: Kraken’s pioneering model is enabling our growing, agile teams to support customers through the climate emergency, global pandemic and the cost of living crisis - whilst maintaining highest levels of CX.
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Best Place to Work: Proud to be an employer of choice, we’re creating and protecting thousands of jobs - no furloughs or redundancies during lockdowns or energy crisis, investing £1m to support employees’ mental and physical health and reaching out to people left stranded by companies collapsing with our diverse and flexible open roles.
- You have the option to answer this final question: Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 250 words used.
Our supporting evidence includes testimonials, images, published reports, stats, press coverage, and links to our website to demonstrate the claims we’ve made in our entry.
Pledging £billions into decarbonising our systems faster
Rather than wait for policy to change, our DNA is all about raising money and innovating solutions from scratch, rather than rework old ways of doing things.
Most Awarded Energy Provider
Rated highly by customers and employees, accolades include 5x Which? Recommended Provider, ‘Best Large Company to work For’ and 4/7-5-star Glassdoor ranking.
Showcasing our stellar growth journey
With growth ahead of projection, this slide illustrates expansion milestones: growing from seed to $5bn international 5x unicorn - all in under 6 years.
Technology for good
Under the inspirational leadership of CEO and founder Greg Jackson, we’ve proved our impact in building a company that is better for the world with testimonials in support of our leadership and example.
Spotlight on Kraken
Our globally-applicable end-to-end entech platform empowers growing agile teams to deliver outstanding customer experience and cleaner, smarter energy for our UK customers - and for the 25m energy accounts licensed to use it around the world - from a cost base 50% lower than rivals.
Taking green energy global through licensing
Kraken is helping global energy providers to be leaner and greener for their customers. Testimonials from Good Energy, Hanwha, TokyoGas and EDF, reports from Origin Energy, and details of our pioneering partnership with EON achieving “ the most successful migration in the history of energy.”
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