Easee founder Jonas Helmikstøl raises €5m for his new venture Starflow

Norwegian home energy startup Starflow has raised €5m in seed funding, justg six months after its pre-seed round.

The round was led by Contrarian Ventures, with participation from Skyfall Ventures, Sondo, and other early-stage investors.

'The 21st-century fireplace'

Starflow is developing what it calls the Energy Hub. It's basically a hybrid inverter system that combines solar panels, battery storage, EV charging, and energy management into a single interface.

The company claims it will offer a more user-friendly experience than other inverter systems currently on the market.

It wants to make home energy systems as aesthetically appealing as it they are functional, a strategy inspired by Scandinavian design and the consumer-tech playbook.

“We’re not here to sell solar panels or kilowatts,” says Helmikstøl. “We want to build something people love, trust, and feel proud to own – the 21st-century fireplace.”

Taking it Easee

Helmikstøl co-founded Easee in 2018 and helped scale it from a three-person team to over 500 employees, reaching reported revenues of €140m before regulatory issues halted sales in Sweden in 2023. The fallout, he told Impact Loop in a recent interview, led to severe burnout and a near-fatal health crisis.

Last year, Helmikstøl launched Starflow alongside Ola Stengel and Nikolai Konopelko – both former Zaptec and Easee engineers.

With Starflow, Helmikstøl says he’s taking a slower, more deliberate approach. “We’re starting with the customer experience, not the product specs,” he previously told Impact Loop. “We're resisting the urge to rush, and making sure what we build actually delivers the experience we want from day one.

Scale-up plans

Investors say the company could help bridge the gap between home electrification and user experience. “They’re redesigning how people interact with energy,” said Patrikas Feiferas, principal at Lithuania-based climate tech VC Contrarian Ventures.

Based in Stavanger, Norway, the company plans to pilot its system across Europe before a full commercial launch in 2027.

Helmikstøl said Norway’s renewable-heavy grid and engineering talent make it an ideal testbed for what he hopes could become a new category in home energy.