Jürgen Mayerhofer(Left), Wolfgang Eichberger (Right)
Startup Overview:
🔋 Description: enspired is an energy tech company offering automated trading and optimization services for flexible energy assets, with a focus on battery storage. Their AI-powered platform helps asset owners maximize revenue in volatile energy markets.
💻 Website: https://www.enspired-trading.com
🙋 Founder: Jürgen Mayerhofer
🤑 Funding: €25.5Mn Series B closed in May 2024
🌎 HQ Location: Vienna, Austria
What We Cover In This Edition:
🏃 How Did They Get Started?
Jürgen Mayerhofer’s journey with enspired began in his previous role at a small algorithmic power trading software vendor. Working with major European utilities gave Jurgen valuable insights into the maturity of trading technology, revealing a significant gap in the market.The team realised that the energy transition towards renewables would dramatically increase the demand for flexibility in power systems.
Traditional energy trading, focused on dispatching generation to match consumption, was becoming outdated. The future lay in optimizing flexible assets to balance an increasingly volatile grid. enspired was founded on a clear thesis: the trend towards net-zero emissions and higher renewable penetration would lead to a surge in demand for flexibility
We believed that higher renewable penetration leads to increased demand for flexibility. Five to ten years ago, most people didn't care too much about flexibility, but this would all change
The team's approach was radically different from traditional trading:
Full automation: No traders, no screens – just software.
Focus on flexibility: Optimizing assets like battery storage, combined heat and power plants, and demand-side use cases.
Technology first: Leveraging AI and machine learning models for prediction and optimization.
Real-time execution: Operating in milliseconds to capture market opportunities.
🤑 How Did They Raise Money?
First Investor
enspired's journey to securing their first investment was unconventional. Instead of immediately seeking private investment, they initially relied on a combination of bootstrapping and public grants.
I earned nothing for the first year, that was part of the deal. Some early employees earned the bare minimum which was financed by public grants
This strategy allowed them to focus entirely on developing their platform without immediate pressure from private investors. However, they did have a safety net in place:
We had the handshake agreement with a business angel as emotional security - in case we ran out of money, he would help extend our runway
This combination of public funding and a potential angel investor gave enspired the runway they needed to develop their product and prove their concept before seeking larger rounds of private investment.
Current Investor Strategy
As enspired has grown, their approach to seeking investors has evolved. The company now prioritizes investors who can understand the complexities of their business model and the energy trading market:
We needed an investor who is eager to dig into that energy trading, but can also understand the bigger picture problems of scaling a growth-stage business
Their approach includes:
Looking for partners who align with their values and vision for the energy transition.
Prioritizing investors who can actively support with the future roadmap
Seeking investors with deep knowledge of the climate tech and energy sectors.
Our strategy for our cap table is to bring investors on board that help us in the future, not now. We believe that you need investors that can help with the unexpected and not just day-to-day problems
🤼 How Did They Build Their Team?
enspired's approach to team building has been consistent from the start, with a strong emphasis on cultural fit and organizational design:
We have a very strong focus on finding smart people with the right cultural fit... how many people can you actually find with the relevant experience?
Key aspects of their hiring strategy include:
Diversity: Over 20 nationalities across 80 employees in 6 countries.
Values-Driven: Using enspired‘s internal framework to identify the traits they look for in candidates.
Planned Growth: Expanding in controlled bursts rather than continuous hiring to allow for better integration and team performance.
We typically start recruiting as soon as we have term sheets because it takes time, and you don't want to spend 6 months hiring after your funding round is formally closed
💰 How Do They Make Money?
First Customer
Finding their first customer was a critical step. The team leveraged their existing network and industry knowledge to target potential clients. Jürgen explains their approach:
Leveraging our network was key, we sent our proposal to ‘friendly’ customers and asked them if they saw any value in our product
However, they faced a unique challenge: their potential customers were often the same companies they were competing with, leading to mixed reactions:
Asking a trading company if they need automated trading services didn’t always go well. For utilities, there were some that gave us a shot and there were others that said, we will do this in-house
Pricing
enspired's business model is built around trading as a service, with a focus on revenue sharing. Their pricing model typically follows two approaches:
Revenue Share: For assets without marginal costs (like batteries), enspired takes a percentage of the revenue generated.
Profit Share: For assets with marginal costs (like gas turbines), they share in the profits above the marginal cost of generation.
This RoI based pricing model is particularly impactful for enspied as it creates an alignment of interests:
With a flat fee, customers won’t know if they’re getting a good deal. Revenue or profit share ensures that customers are only paying for positive outcomes
The approach allowed enspired to double-down on a value-based sales approach where they can highlight how they beat performance benchmarks by more than 80%, in turn generating significant returns for both clients and themselves.
SCALE ADVICE COLUMN
1. Consistency is Key: "You have to have that very consistent story around. Series B is not about storytelling... You have to have a very clear picture, not only for the next two years, but five years, how you think the market will evolve, how will your business model adapt over time."
2. Embrace Investor Feedback: "Even if nobody invests, I would talk to every investor, because sometimes somebody that has no clue about your business may have super smart questions... So that process is actually very good to reflect and get a ton of outside feedback."
3. Build for Future Optionality: "We're building SaaS quality software. We could license it whenever we want... If we need it now, we have it. If our competitors are building with a narrow mindset ... their strategic options are 90% less than ours."
📖 enspired Fact Sheet
Seed Round: €3.5 million (2020)
Team Size: 12 employees
Focus: Developing the core technology platform
Key Challenge: Proving the viability of AI-driven energy trading
Series A: €7.5 million (October 2021)
Team Size: Grew from 15 to 50 people
Focus: Scaling the platform and expanding into new markets
Key Achievement: Pivoting to focus on battery storage optimization during the energy crisis
Series B: €25.5 million (May 2024)
Team Size: 80 employees
Focus: Geographic expansion and product innovation
Key Challenge: Scaling operations while maintaining performance and culture
📈 What's Next for enspired?
Following their €25.5 million Series B round in May 2024, enspired is focused on several key objectives:
Geographic expansion: Entering new markets, with a particular focus on Japan and other strategic locations
Product innovation: Developing new features like cell-specific battery degradation modeling for more accurate asset monetization
Market share growth: Aggressively signing new contracts to secure a leading position in the growing flexibility optimization market.
Operational excellence: Enhancing information security and internal systems to support the growing asset portfolio under management.
It’s simple really - it's about execution now
💼 Work with enspired!
If you are an investor or would like to work with enspired, get in touch at [email protected].
Open job listings are also available at: https://enspired.recruitee.com/
