Energy startup bags £1m investment and government backing

Igloo Energy has been awarded two grants totalling over £1m to further develop its unique energy saving software in partnership with two leading British Universities.

A grant worth over £900k has been awarded to Igloo Energy by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), as part of the Thermal Efficiency Innovation Fund - a government led scheme investing up to £10m to develop technologies and approaches to increase energy efficiency across the UK.

Research from the UK Energy Research Centres has shown that by introducing cost effective measures, the country could save a quarter of the energy used by households by 2035.

The grant aims to fund a two-year project to further develop Igloo’s unique software that identifies suitable energy efficient upgrades for customers’ homes.

CEO and co-founder of Igloo Energy, Matt Clemow, said: “Innovation and technology are at the heart of our business model, so we are delighted to have secured this government funding.

“At a time when there are a significant number of new energy companies coming to market competing solely on price with no real differentiation, it’s great that Igloo has been recognised as a real innovator in the UK energy market.

“Our customers are already using smart technology and seeing their energy consumption, and bills, drop by up to 30 per cent.”

Igloo Energy will be working in partnership with the team at the energy and climate change division at the University of Southampton, which will focus on customer engagement, and testing the recommendations.

The other partner is the Foresight Group, which will investigate the delivery of low cost financing through innovative funding approaches within infrastructure and green energy to enable as many consumers as possible to benefit from the approach.

Separately, Igloo Energy has also been awarded a £120k grant by InnovateUK. The project, in partnership with University College London, is to support the understanding of existing data to create more confident insights into customers energy consumption.

There is already a vast amount of energy, property and socio-economic data freely available in the UK alongside energy and contextual data. The grant will enable the creation of an inventory of the data sets and an investigation into their quality.