From renewables to smart EV charging – here's Impact Loop's 10 hottest energy grid startups (in Europe)

Increasingly hot summers each year are pushing up air conditioner use across Europe. Demand for AC is increasing, and the International Energy Agency has warned global demand could increase electricity consumption three times by 2050.

"Impact startups focused on cooling solutions will play an essential role in helping people manage increasingly severe heatwaves," says Jan Lozek, founder and Managing Partner at Future Energy Ventures, a leading impact VC in Berlin.

While summer may be over, rising electricity demand, from EVs to heat pumps, is set to put even more pressure on Europe’s aging grids in the years ahead.

"Grid operators are already struggling with evening demand spikes when solar output declines, forcing reliance on expensive fossil generation," says Lozek.

"Without smart solutions, we're heading toward a choice between comfort and grid stability."

Lozek says he’s looking to put more money into grid innovations, including grid-integrated cooling systems, thermal storage technologies and predictive cooling management.

"While there are promising startups emerging in smart grid optimization, distributed energy coordination, and climate risk assessment," says Lozek, "the opportunity far exceeds the current supply."

With all that in mind, we’ve gathered ten startups pushing into the space across Europe, some from Future Energy’s own portfolio, and others that stood out to us.

eSmart Systems, Norway

Founder: Knut Johansen

Focus: Grid maintenance/analytics

About: Halden-based eSmart is a leader in AI-backed software for inspecting, maintaining and digitalising grids. The software turns images of physical infrastructure into a ‘digital twin’ which can help spot potential failure points in the grid. The company also helps providers bring their grids into the modern era.

"We're definitely part of the solution to enable more integration of renewable and distributed energy into the grid," CEO Henrik Bache tells Impact Loop. Late in 2024, eSmart raised €30m in a round led by French impact fund TiLT Capital Partners, with Future Energy Ventures also participating.

Thermondo, Germany

Founders: Philipp Pausder, Florian Tetzlaff, and Kristofer Fichtner

Focus: Home/business heating

About: Thermondo, based in Berlin, has been around since 2013 and offers integrated heating and colling systems for residential and commercial buildings. They focus specifically on climate-efficient solutions, and according to a recent profile have installed over 50,000 systems. The company raised €50 million in July 2025 to install thousands of heat pumps across Germany.

Piclo, UK

Founders: Alice Tyler, Andy Kilner, James Johnston

Focus: Energy marketplace

About: Describing itself as an “independent marketplace for energy flexibility,” Piclo optimises decentralised energy generation and storage assets. Put simply, the platform connects EV, battery and distributed energy operators with buyers. The London-based firm was featured in PwC’s Net Zero Future50 initiative in 2025, and raised an undisclosed amount in late 2024.

Ev.energy, UK

Founders: Nick Woolley, Chris Darby

Focus: Smart charging

About: One of the biggest barriers to more people making the switch to EVs is of course the still-nascent charging infrastructure. ev.energy, founded in 2018, offers an app to help drivers – regardless of car model, home type, etc – optimise their charging, benefitting both the driver and helping to manage demand on the grid. The company already has a strong presence in the US, and secured $41m (€35m) from the California Energy Commission in 2024.

Encoord, Germany/US

Founders: Carlo Brancucci, Kwabena Pambour

Focus: Energy management

About: Encoord (short for energy coordination) was founded in the US, but the company also operates out of Essen, Germany, with a strong European presence. The company’s core offering is its Scenario Analysis Interface for Energy Systems (SAInt). The software coordinates distributed energy resources across markets – allowing utilities to optimise their operations. encoord has raised over $6m (€5.1m) in several rounds since 2020.

Mitiga Solutions, Spain

Founders: Alejandro Martí, Mauricio Hanzich

Focus: Climate adaptation/mitigation

About: Based in Barcelona and a spin-off from Spain's National Supercomputing Center, Mitiga uses satellite data, backed by AI, to help utilities companies prepare for adverse weather events and other climate change impacts, with scenario planning and risk assessments. Mitiga raised €8m in an extended Series A round led by French deeptech investors Elaia Partners in mid-2024.

Rebase Energy, Sweden

Founders: Sebastian Haglund, Mihai Chiru

Focus: Energy forecasting

About: Stockholm-based Rebase’s mission is an ambitious one: rethink the entire energy grid system for a cleaner planet. The company offers open source energy climate forecasting and operations optimisation software to energy traders and utilities, to maintain the balance of existing grids and build innovations into those of the future. The company is backed by Norwegian early-stage investor ProVenture.

Envelio, Germany

Founders: Fabian Potratz, Moritz Cramer, Philipp Erlinghagen, Philipp Goergens, Simon Koopmann

Focus: Intelligent grids

Originally a spin-out from RWTH Aachen University, Envelio describes its vision as "intelligent grids for a sustainable future worldwide." What this looks like in practice is digital twins for grid operators to help digitise and automate operations. In a major endorsement of their system, European energy giant E.ON acquired a majority stake in envelio in 2021.

Solarize Energy Solutions, Germany

Founders: Frederik Pfisterer, Florian Feigenbutz, Andi Weiß

Focus: Decentralised power

About: Stuttgart-based Solarize was founded to solve a specific problem: a lack of joined-up local renewable energy generation projects to allow multiple properties to both benefit from local power generated and contribute to the grid. The company, having raised €4.3m in a 2022 seed round, is working to expand its solution – an SaaS platform for decentralised power generation – across Europe and beyond.

FlexiDAO, Netherlands

Founders: Simone Accornero, Grzegorz Bytniewski

Focus: Renewables monitoring

About: The last company on this list – and the clue is in the name. FlexiDAO offers users realtime tools to manage and adapt their renewable energy use, with extensive tools to track the actual carbon impact of grid use. The company has some impressive backing, having raised €5.5m in 2023 from investors including EIT InnoEnergy, Google and the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund.

(Image from left: Carlo Brancucci, encoord; Mauricio Hanzich, Mitiga Solutions; Alice Tyler, Piclo; Alejandro Martí, Mitiga Solutions; Kwabena Pambour, encoord; Jan Lozek, Future Energy Ventures; Deborah McGargle, ev.energy. Photos: press images)