GB flexibility marketplace Piclo to grow international presence
Piclo has raised £8.3 million (US$10.1 million) in Series B funding with which the plan is to grow in new regions across Europe, the US and Asia-Pacific.
Piclo, which was founded in 2013, has established itself as a pioneer in the delivery of flexibility.
Piclo Flex claims one of the world’s largest flexibility marketplaces, with over 55,000 assets registered representing over 16GW of flexibility and having facilitated 1.1GW of flexibility capacity worth over £57 million ($70 million).
With the new backing, which was co-led by Future Energy Ventures and the Clean Growth Fund with existing and new investors, Piclo is planning to establish partnerships in new markets in Europe, the US and Asia-Pacific.
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In addition to its central role in flexibility in the UK, Piclo has rolled out in Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Lithuania in Europe and most recently has launched a collaboration with National Grid in the US to pilot Piclo Flex in New York state.
“We believe that flexibility solutions through our marketplace have a critical role to play in the global journey to net zero and will help deliver increased energy security at lower cost, building on the great progress we’ve already made in the UK,” says James Johnson, CEO of Piclo.
“It is an exciting time to be part of a UK cleantech ecosystem that will deliver the solutions we need to achieve net zero.”
In addition to the market growth, the new funds will support Piclo’s growing team and investment in further product development.
Jan Lozek, managing partner and co-founder at Future Energy Ventures, says given volatile supply and demand patterns and location mismatches between renewable generation sources and major energy consumption centres, flexibility is key to accelerating the energy transition and balancing the energy system.
“We believe Piclo’s digital marketplace platform is central to that and estimate the company’s long-term cumulative impact potential by 2050 could reach 1GtCO2e, which is ca 2.5% of the total global greenhouse gas emissions in 2021.”
