Copenhagen-based OKTO GRID, a company that has developed a solution to digitise the energy industry, announced that it has raised €3M in a Seed round of funding.
Elewit (Redeia’s corporate VC), Rockstart and EMD Fonden participated in the current round to support the global energy industry as performance standards rise in response to increased electricity consumption.
Silvia Bruno, Director at Elewit, says, “Our goal at Elewit is to promote energy transition and connectivity for a sustainable future. The team at OKTO GRID has developed a solution that has the potential to make asset condition monitoring for electricity generators and distributors easier and more realistic to implement – enabling them to optimise their equipment and more easily meet future demands for productivity, stability, and prolong asset lifetime.”
Prior to this, OKTO GRID raised a total of €900K in soft funding and pre-Seed from Vækstfonden, Innovation Fund Denmark, Rockstart Energy Fund, Mist Ventures AB, and Power Syndicate ApS.
Capital utilisation
OKTO GRID says it will use the funds to become an industry-leading player in the European market for condition monitoring of transformers and wind turbines within the next three years. Currently, the company is already operational in markets such as Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Slovenia, and Spain — a presence they now seek to increase.
Golam Sadeghnia, CEO of OKTO GRID, says, “OKTO GRID is on a mission to digitalise transformers to handle new energy sources and rising energy consumption. The world is becoming increasingly electrified which requires an upgrade of our existing electricity infrastructure. We need to expand our current grid with new grid assets as well as add new life to existing infrastructure by digitalisation. Adding new data sources using OKTO GRID’s simplified method will take us a long way.”
Making transformer monitoring simple
According to OKTO GRID, it anticipates an increase in the demand for power by the year 2030. Energy sources transitioning to renewables and electric vehicles are becoming the norm. As society becomes more electrified, an outdated electrical system that can no longer offer a high-quality supply receives a much-needed overhaul. Transformers are at the centre of this energy transition.
OKTO GRID has created a solution to assist the energy sector digitise assets in a simple manner without pulling significant assets out of service to prevent any wear and tear failures and to extend the lifespan of transformers by up to another 40 years. Distributors of energy and even energy producers are now able to assess condition changes, anomalies, and track asset performance in more detail than ever before thanks to this technology.
Sadeghnia says, “The competitor situation today consists primarily of larger companies that manufacture transformers and energy generators and have the equipment to collect certain types of data. They are, however, to a certain extent limited to their own products. Smaller companies offer solutions that are limited to certain transformer types and use technologies that require downtime and significant costs.”
“OKTO GRID’s solution, which works independently of transformer type and manufacturer, is mounted in less than 10 minutes without downtime or any tooling required. To the best of our knowledge, we are unique in the market with this combination,” adds Sadeghnia.
With a particular focus on transformers, OKTO GRID began developing an IoT device in 2019 that collects mission-critical data non-invasively from electricity-generating or distributing infrastructure. The data is then examined using the company’s in-house event detection algorithms to look for abnormalities and specific events related to the assets’ operation and end of life.
OKTO GRID claims to be the first mover in the market with its innovative solution, which can be easily deployed and installed. Currently, the company has customers in five European countries using the solution in a demonstration phase.
