Octopus Energy to make UK the "Silicon Valley of energy" with 1,000 new jobs and a tech innovation centre

• Fast-growth disruptor creates 1,000 new jobs across four UK sites and announces new tech innovation centre in the North of England
• Prime Minister and Chancellor welcome these jobs and hail “fantastic opportunities across green energy”

London, 5 October 2020 – The Prime Minister and the Chancellor have today welcomed tech unicorn and UK energy pioneer Octopus Energy’s announcement of 1,000 jobs and a new technology, data science and AI centre in Manchester.

The UK's latest tech unicorn announced its ambition to make the UK the "Silicon Valley of energy" with plans to double its existing workforce by the end of 2021. The new jobs will be spread across its sites in London, Brighton, Warwick and Leicester and will primarily go to graduates, with many opportunities for those from STEM backgrounds, to work in operations and green energy tech.

One of the UK's fastest growing private companies, which last week launched in the US market, Octopus Energy is on a mission to fight climate change by revolutionising the way that we think about green energy. Its proprietary cloud-based technology platform has unlocked the 'smart grid', giving customers access to cheaper electricity when renewable energy is abundant and even paying them to use it when there is a surplus.

Its new technology centre, based in Manchester, will develop the smart grid technologies required for a renewable system and the electrification of transport and heating. Collaboration across London, Manchester and Silicon Valley will help deliver systems which automatically warm homes when the grid is greenest.

Octopus Energy CEO, Greg Jackson, said,

"When Apple created the App Store, nobody knew that it would change the way we order food or transport forever. Through ‘Kraken’, our cloud-based energy platform, we’re revolutionising the energy industry in the same way, creating jobs not just through increased demand for affordable renewables, but by facilitating the development of new and emerging industries like electric vehicles, electric heating and vertical farming.

Our technology is making the UK the Silicon Valley of energy, and along with a flourishing market, can help make Britain the best place to invest in creating new clean electricity generation”

Today’s jobs announcement was welcomed by Prime Minister, Boris Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said:

“These 1,000 jobs will provide exciting opportunities across the country for those who want to be at the cutting edge of the global green revolution.

“And it’s UK tech companies like Octopus who will ensure we continue to build back greener and remain a world leader in pioneering renewable energy, leading the path to net zero whilst creating thousands of skilled jobs.”

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said:

“More green jobs is not only good news for British job seekers - it’s a vote of confidence in the UK economy as it recovers, and pivotal to our collective efforts to build a greener, cleaner planet.”

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Notes for editors:

Press contact

Christina Hess

T: +44 7897 699 195

E: christina.hess@octoenergy.com

About Octopus Energy

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 1.7 million customers with cheaper greener power. 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, Origin Energy, and 4hundred. 

Octopus Energy is the only Which? Recommended energy supplier for three years in a row, topping the table in 2020. It also recently won Best Utility at the Utility Week Awards and was named ‘the company that’s done the most to advance UK renewables’ by the Renewable Energy Association in 2019. 

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.