Greenely — taking control of your electricity for the sake of the planet and your wallet
Climate change is one of our generation’s biggest challenges. It is a huge threat to our planet and we are on the path to making 143 million people “climate migrants.” A fourth of your household’s greenhouse gas emissions stem from electricity consumption. Controlling how much electricity you use, is one of the obvious ways to start reducing our carbon footprint.
Electricity is an essential necessity. No one really wants to stop using it, but we are starting to care about where it comes from and how we can use it better.
Traditional electricity suppliers are not incentivised to provide us with data that will allow us to take control of our consumption. On the contrary, it has actually benefited the big electric power companies to keep our electricity usage high, as this is how they make their money. In favor of the consumer, and the environment, the EU decided that smart meters; allowing consumers to see, understand and affect their consumption and costs, shall be implemented in 80% of our homes by 2020. Smart meters now allow consumers to measure and analyze their electricity consumption down to every 15 min, and as a result we will see a shift in how electricity is priced and charged by the hour for each household. Understanding and optimizing your electricity consumption will reduce your electric bill quite substantially.
We might also see a new pricing structure where households are charged based on their individual monthly peak load. This means for each given month, total electricity consumption is priced based on your highest peak load. When this happens, managing electricity consumption will be one of the biggest cost savers for households.
Luminar Ventures are happy to back the Greenely team to help consumers take control of their electricity consumption. Greenely is challenging the status quo in electricity for the sake of our planet.
For me, as a parent, I want to make the planet a better place for my children. Climate change is personal to me and I strive to empower my children to make good choices and treat the environment with care.
This is why we were among the first of Swedish homes to install solar panels and produce our own electricity. When I was an angel investor, before founding Luminar Ventures, I have always been on the lookout for ambitious founders trying not only to solve big problems, but at the same time contributing to better planet.
Up until today, consumption of electricity has been a black box to us consumers.
That is how I first met Tanmoy, Mohammed and Fredrik — the founders of Greenely — over four years ago, in the basement at KTH. Since first meeting the team, I was compelled by the trio’s vision of allowing consumers to take control of how they use and buy electricity; my belief in their product has continuously grown. Greenely first launched their smart meter app allowing any Swedish household to measure their electricity consumption, compare their usage to others and get smart tips to save energy. This free product resulted in fantastic engagement and user growth. Now with a tap on your smartphone, Greenely can also deliver your electricity — 100% green, and help you pay less for your electricity. The Greenely founders, bring an open and new mindset to a very old and traditional industry. They have proven their grit, high integrity and ableness to sift among “smart” advice.
We will see a lot of innovation beyond solar panels happening in the electricity sector, and now there is a real consumer demand behind it. An increasing amount of people are eager to find ways of pulling their own weight and create a more sustainable future.
And I would love to be challenged when it comes to lowering electricity consumption and costs with a maintained standard of living,
so please download the app at https://www.greenely.se/ and challenge me.
Luminar Ventures, Founding Partner Jacob Key
