Kraken eyes up utilities revolution

• Kraken Technologies, the rapidly-growing platform provider, announces expansion from energy to other utilities
• New business arm headed up by former BCG Senior Partner, Deepak Ravindran
• Expanding global tech team to accommodate scaling

London, 18th May 2022 - Kraken Technologies, the cloud-native platform behind the fast-growing disruptor Octopus Energy, is expanding to target industries such as water and broadband.

Since 2020, Kraken has contracted 25 million accounts in energy, accounting for over 40% of UK energy customers, and is live in 6 geographies. With clients including EDF, E.On, Octopus, Origin, Tokyo Gas, Good Energy and Hanwha’s Nectr, Kraken has already delivered c. 20 rapid, successful migrations.

Its new business, Kraken Utilities, will be the first all-service dedicated technology platform for the utility industry.

Building on the already award winning end-to-end entech platform, Kraken Utilities will create customer centricity and automated, scalable and efficient operations for other traditionally low-tech sectors, allowing innovation at pace.

The new team will be led by Deepak Ravindran who is moving over from Boston Consulting Group (BCG). As a Senior Partner and Managing Director at BCG, Deepak gained extensive experience transforming legacy businesses through technology, working across the UK, Nordics, US, South East Asia and India. Deepak is a successful entrepreneur himself, taking the tech business he founded from concept to IPO. He has been involved as a partner to Octopus Energy Group since 2018.

To build the platform, Kraken Utilities is hiring for 50 open positions – adding to the 250 technologists, spreading across product development, tech and go-to-market teams. The team will work across Octopus Energy Group’s main tech hubs in London, Houston, Sydney, Manchester, Silicon Valley and Tokyo.

Completely cloud-native, Kraken delivers around 100 releases per day, supported by an enormous array of automated testing. This allows hyper-speed development compared to traditional platforms – enhancing agility and driving greater security, resilience and service levels.

In a fast-changing world, fast-changing technology is no longer a luxury, but increasingly a necessity to keep up with customer expectations, regulatory changes and social and environmental needs – as well as the huge opportunities offered to drive higher efficiency through big data and machine learning.

Deepak Ravindran, CEO of Kraken Utilities, comments on the news:

“Kraken is well on its way to revolutionising the energy sector. It has brought a new level of customer centricity and now powers the most loved energy utilities globally.

“But energy doesn’t need to be the only utility which can benefit from the Kraken model. Many companies seek to become more customer centric and efficient – Kraken’s unique combination of low-risk transformation to a digital-first operation is a huge opportunity for these companies. This is an incredibly exciting time for me, and the whole team here, to help bring this transformation to great companies across the globe.”

Greg Jackson, Founder of Octopus Energy Group, comments:

“We’ve increasingly been approached by water companies, telcos and other utilities who saw the way that Kraken has transformed customer and employee experience in energy, whilst driving down costs and opening up whole new opportunities through technology and customer engagement.

“With forward-thinking utilities and regulators seeking to benefit from lower operating costs, better customer experience and exploiting whole new efficiencies through machine learning and big data, we’ve been working hard to expand Kraken from its revolutionary position in energy to offer these advantages across all utilities.”

-ENDS-

Notes to editors:

Octopus Energy Group / Kraken Technologies

Dominic Bellamy

PR Manager

+44 7572900987

dominic.bellamy@octoenergy.com

About Octopus Energy Group

Octopus Energy Group is a global energy tech pioneer, launched in 2016 to use technology to unlock a customer focused and affordable green energy revolution. It is part of Octopus Group, which is a certified BCorp. With operations in 13 countries, Octopus Energy Group's mission is going global.

Octopus’s domestic energy arm already serves 3.2 million customers with cheaper greener power, through Octopus Energy, M&S Energy, Affect Energy, Ebico, London Power and Co-op Energy. Octopus Electric Vehicles is helping make clean transport cheaper and easier, and Octopus Energy Services is bringing smart products to thousands of homes. Octopus Energy Generation is one of Europe’s largest investors in renewable energy, managing a £3.4 billion portfolio of renewable energy assets throughout the continent.

All of these are made possible by Octopus’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 20 million customer accounts worldwide, through deals with EDF Energy, Good Energy, E.ON energy and Origin Energy.

In December 2021, Octopus Energy Group was valued at approximately $5 billion following a $600 million investment from Generation Investment Management and a $300 million investment from Canada Pensions Plan Investments Board. Both investors back businesses that drive sustainability, promote green energy and tackle climate change. It was the company’s third major investment round since launching to the market.

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