COVID-19: UK’s fastest growing private company joins testing pilot

• Testing available to Octopus Energy employees in London, Leicester, Warwick and Brighton
• Regular testing adds further layer to Octopus Energy’s already existing Covid safety measures

London, 11 December 2020 - A Covid-19 testing pilot is launching at Octopus Energy, the UK’s fastest growing private company, as part of the Government’s drive to continue to increase mass testing. Octopus is also the first energy company to join the nationwide testing scheme.

The mass testing pilot adds a further layer to Octopus Energy’s existing Covid safety measures in the workplace and allows staff to isolate immediately if they test positive, helping to curb the infection rate.

The pilot, which uses a fast-turnaround lateral flow antigen test, started in Octopus Energy’s London office last week and is now rolling out to its offices in Brighton, Warwick and Leicester, allowing more staff members to get tested before the festive period.

New testing technologies, such as lateral flow devices, allow a rapid test result without being reliant on laboratory capacity. Testing will take place several days a week and will be available for staff members on a voluntary basis.

The pilot will offer self-administered tests. Anyone testing positive for the virus will be contacted by NHS Test and Trace to help them track their contacts, protecting others from further transmission.

Greg Jackson, CEO and founder of Octopus Energy, said:

“Octopus Energy is so pleased to be one of the first companies to join the pilot to support the government in ramping up mass testing, helping to curb the spread of the virus and paving the way back to a life as normal as possible under the current conditions.

“I'm very proud of the Octopus Energy team who have worked incredibly hard to look after our customers this year and also stringently followed all our Covid guidelines whenever they needed to visit the office. It’s great to see that almost everyone who comes into the office now also takes a test.”

Health Minister Lord Bethell said:

“We’ve already come so far since first setting up a national testing programme at an unprecedented pace to help counter COVID-19, but we continue to strive to go further, faster.

“Innovations such as lateral flow devices hold the key to the next phase of our ambition to see mass, rapid testing available to people across the country.

“I’m delighted that Octopus Energy are working with us to pilot the latest technology at their offices in London, Brighton, Leicester and Warwick, and I look forward to seeing the fruits of their labour, both in helping target the virus locally, and helping find ways to roll this technology out further soon.”

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

See latest testing statistics here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-information-for-the-public

Press Contact

Christina Hess

T: +44 7897 699 195

christina.hess@octoenergy.com

For media enquiries about the mass testing programme please contact:

pressofficenewsdesk@dhsc.gov.uk

About Octopus Energy Group

Octopus Energy Group was launched in 2016 with a vision of using technology to make the green energy revolution affordable whilst transforming customer experiences. Its domestic energy arm already serves over 1.8 million customers with cheaper greener power, through Octopus Energy, M&S Energy, Affect Energy, London Power and Co-op Energy.

Octopus Energy for Business manages over 20,000 customers with proprietary energy offerings. Octopus Electric Vehicles is helping make clean transport cheaper and easier, and Octopus Energy Services is bringing smart products to thousands of homes.

All of these are made possible by OEG's tech arm, Kraken Technologies, which offers a proprietary, in-house platform based on advanced data and machine learning capabilities, Kraken automates much of the energy supply chain to allow outstanding service and efficiency as the world transitions to a decentralised, decarbonised energy system. This technology has been licensed to support over 17 million accounts worldwide, through deals with Good Energy, E.ON energy, Hanwha, 4hundred and Origin Energy.

The business is backed by Octopus Group, a financial services and energy firm, which manages more than £8.6bn of funds and has invested more than £2.7bn in renewable assets across Europe. In April 2020, Octopus Energy Group became a UK tech unicorn, valued at well over £1 billion following an investment from leading Australian energy company Origin Energy. With operations in Germany, Australia and the US, Octopus Energy Group's mission to drive the affordable green revolution is going global. 

For more information, check out our website.