From cyber and fintech to the beating heart of the energy transition

In an exclusive interview with Smart Energy International, Amir Orad, CEO of Kraken, talks about how Kraken is revolutionising the energy industry, what excites him about the future and how the platform will help energy companies thrive in the evolving energy landscape.

You joined Kraken this year after a successful career in cybersecurity, fintech, and AI. What encouraged you to move into energy tech?

After 25 years of leading companies in cybersecurity, fintech, and AI, I made two key decisions when I thought about where to focus the next decade: I wanted to make a real, meaningful impact, and I wanted to do it at scale. The obvious choice? Energy.

Energy is one of the last major industries that hasn’t fully tapped into the transformative potential of AI, big data and the cloud. But it’s also one of the most crucial. This sector will define the future of the planet – and what we leave behind for our children. The opportunity to create large-scale, global change here is enormous.

The macro forces pushing renewable energy and electrification are reshaping everything. The convergence of these forces presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to modernise energy systems and make them fit for the future. So, when I was approached to join Kraken, I saw the perfect intersection of technology and purpose.

And what is Kraken’s role in that?

Kraken is the backbone that powers the energy transition. It’s an advanced operating system designed to help energy companies pivot toward a renewable, electrified future.

The energy sector is undergoing several massive shifts – our power sources are relying more and more on renewable energy, which is cheaper and less polluting, but less consistent than past sources. Electric vehicles are becoming mainstream, home heating is rapidly electrifying and energy consumption is more complex than ever.

Kraken is built to handle this complexity and benefit from it. We provide an end-to-end platform that brings all these threads together in one place. This gives energy companies the ability to accelerate their transition to renewables, launch innovative products and improve customer service – while reducing operational costs. This kind of combination of benefits is very rare.

Take E.ON for example. They replaced 17 legacy systems with Kraken. Or EDF, who reported a 30-fold increase in new product innovation, improved consumer rankings and had hundreds of millions in operational savings. That’s the beauty of Kraken – companies don’t just get better tech; they get a leaner, more efficient business.

What positions Kraken to meet these complex challenges?

Kraken was born within an energy company, Octopus Energy. So, our DNA is deeply rooted in the industry. We aren’t outsiders trying to force change. We understand the challenges and nuances of this market because we’ve lived them.

We’re also cloud-native, data-driven, and AI-first. This is crucial and you can not retrofit a system to be that. The world’s energy systems are becoming more complex, but the technology which energy companies rely on has been stuck in the past. Kraken is built for this new era. 

The proofpoint is very clear – over 40 major migrations have been completed using Kraken, all of them on time and on budget. That’s unheard of in this industry with legacy tech.

By replacing entire stacks of outdated systems, Kraken unlocks huge efficiencies. For example, the energy companies using Kraken have seen customer satisfaction scores soar while cutting operational costs materially. That’s not just a win for the company – that’s a win for consumers, as the savings get passed on.

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With a background in big data and analytics, how do you see the near future of AI?

The way I see it, we’re in the BlackBerry stage of AI – the early days, with the iPhone-like revolution still ahead of us. Over the next decade, we’re going to see AI drive seismic shifts across industries, energy included.

On Kraken, we process 5 billion data points a day, and we’re only getting started. At some point, that’ll be 50 billion. The potential is massive and the complexity is real. Kraken’s machine learning models already allow energy companies to optimise energy generation, consumption and distribution in real time. This is how we get to smart homes that pay zero energy bills, or tariffs for EV drivers that drop below 9 cents per kWh – real-world examples we’re already seeing today.

How important is ‘culture’ to a business like Kraken, and how do you see this impacting the future workforce?

Culture is critical – it’s the foundation that makes everything else possible. At Kraken, we’re mission-driven. Our people aren’t just here for a pay cheque. They’ve joined us because they believe in the energy transition and want to be part of something bigger.

Our investors understand this too – they’re here for long-term impact and returns. That’s why we have the freedom to do things right, even when it takes time. Our culture is built on innovation, purpose, and the belief that we’re building something truly transformative.

We also have a global footprint, which is part of our DNA. We’re international from day one. We’ve scaled Kraken across the UK, Australia, Japan, the US and beyond. This international mindset helps us attract top talent from all corners of the globe. The engineers joining us aren’t looking for incremental change – they want to build the future.

And we are innovators. We had to invent, from scratch, an entire technology approach to this industry. First to service our own company, which was Octopus Energy, where we witnessed challenges firsthand. That innovative DNA that challenges the status quo is key to our success.

And it’s working. We have some of the lowest employee churn in the industry. People come to Kraken and they stay. That says a lot about who we are and the culture we’ve built.

As a software entrepreneur, what keeps you excited and engaged?

The scale of what we’re enabling. Energy is going through more change in the next ten years than in the last century. Think about that. We’re at the forefront of an industrial revolution that will touch every corner of the globe.

When you’re part of something that has the power to reshape an entire industry – and impact the lives of billions – that’s about as exciting and engaging as it gets.

What comes next for Kraken?

We’re just getting started. Kraken was founded in 2015 and in under a decade, we’ve already grown to manage over half of the UK’s energy accounts, a third of Australia’s energy market, and 20% of the UK’s water accounts.

We’re already automating and managing charging for over 200,000 EVs, with 1.2GW of flexible load – the equivalent of one or two nuclear power plants, and this is just the beginning. Our tech has proven itself at scale. The global renewables industry is going through massive growth, and Kraken’s ability to transform existing and new energy companies with tech that cuts costs increases efficiency, and scales globally is making a big difference.

We’ve proven it first in the UK, then Western Europe, Australia, Japan and North America. Now it’s time to scale that success globally. With customers in over 25 countries and counting, Kraken is well-positioned to become the go-to platform for energy transition across the world. We’re building the future, and we’re just getting started.

Kraken is participating in several exciting Summit and hub sessions at Enlit Europe in Milan, 22-24 October 2024.  You can join Kraken experts at booth 5.C10 to discuss your challenges and opportunities in detail and, most importantly, in person. 
View the programme here and register for your free pass today.