Octopus valuation leaps after investors increase stakes

OCTOPUS Energy’s valuation has jumped to £7.2bn after two of its biggest investors increased their stakes in the business.

Generation Investment Management and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, already major investors, took even bigger shares in the energy and technology group, pushing its value up 15 per cent on a previous estimate.

Generation, which focuses on sustainable investments, upped its stake to 13 per cent after getting new backing from pension funds in the US and Australia, including Australian superannuation fund Aware Super.

CPP Investments, which manages about 590.8 billion Canadian dollars-worth of assets, increased its stake to 12 per cent.

Greg Jackson, founder of Octopus Energy Group, said: “Bringing globally respected long-term investors on board helps raise our profile in key markets, and opens up new opportunities to continue our international expansion.”

Octopus has been expanding abroad for some years and now has a presence in 18 countries. It is pushing its energy software platform, Kraken, in North America, having signed its first licensing deal in Texas last year.

The latest estimate comes after Octopus closed its last funding round in December, when it raised 800 million US dollars.

Tom Hodges, co-head of private equity at Generation Investment Management, said: “The company has accelerated ahead of its UK peers in energy and in Kraken has developed the first credible digitisation platform for utilities.”

Octopus recently became the largest domestic electricity supplier in the UK by customer numbers, after the company added 1.3 million customers via its takeover of Shell Energy last year.

The eight-year-old company overtook Centrica-owned British Gas, which had been the largest supplier for the last 20 years, according to Ofgem data.

Elsewhere, it also recently invested in Ocergy, a tech company specialising in floating offshore wind farms, and entered a partnership with Energisa Group, an energy utility company in Brazil, in its first foray into the country.

Bill Rogers, global head of sustainable energies at CPP Investments, added: “Through this increased commitment to Octopus Energy, we are pleased to support the business as it enters this next period of growth.”