Green fund to invest £440m in Leicester energy company

Leicester-based Octopus Energy has revealed a major £440m investment from a green investment fund in a deal which values the company at almost £3.4bn.

Generation Investment Management, a firm established in 2004 by US politician Al Gore to back businesses driving sustainability and the fight against climate change, has taken the stake in the energy firm, which last week became the UK’s fifth biggest supplier after it took on the customer base of the failed Leicestershire utilities firm Avro.

The agreement, which has been several months in the making, will see Generation’s Long-term Equity strategy take a stake of up to approximately 13% in the business. Octopus will use the proceeds of Generation’s strategic investment to boost its mission to drive the renewable revolution globally.

In a statement, Octopus said: “Octopus’s technology platform, Kraken, is already contracted to deliver outstanding customer experience, hyper efficient operations and cleaner and smarter energy solutions to 17 million energy accounts globally, through Octopus’s own retail businesses in the UK, USA, Germany, Spain and New Zealand.”

Octopus was set up in 2016 by Greg Jackson and now has more than 2.2 million customers.