To mark International Men's Day today we are giving a shoutout to the leading men in energy supporting the work of POWERful Women and driving better balance . [44] In July 2021, Octopus acquired sister company Octopus Renewables which claims to be the UK's largest investor in solar farms, and also invests in wind power and anaerobic digesters. As 31 energy firms went bust since the start of last year, public ire has been directed at the bosses of failed challengers. [31] This meant Octopus gained "unicorn" status, as a startup company with a value in excess of 1 billion. Rachel holds a Bachelors degree in Economics from the University of Sussex, as well as a Masters in Economic and Politics from the University of Cambridge. [16][17], In January 2020, ENGIE UK announced that it was selling its residential energy supply business (comprising around 70,000 UK residential customers) to Octopus. Registered number: 09263424. Jackson grew up in a rough neighborhood, and began learning martial arts to defend himself. reg Jackson starts each day by flicking on the radio and scrunching into his bath. Jon played a key role in establishing leading Australian challengers Simply Energy (now part of Engie) and Alinta East Coast retail holding a number of senior roles across operations, customer experience and market development. Greg is an experienced digital entrepreneur, passionate about using technology to make positive change. Our researched showed that Octopus Energy has grown its domestic customer based in UK, from just 198,000 customers in 2018 to over 1.5 million customers in 2020. Hes founded a number of successful businesses, including e-commerce company C360, and is an angel investor in a wide range of tech start-ups. With operations in the US, Japan, Germany, Spain, Italy, New Zealand and Australia, Octopus Energy Group's mission to drive the affordable green revolution is going global. Do you have any influences that have inspired your entrepreneurial journey and how? Greg is the founder and CEO of Octopus Energy Group, the green energy tech pioneer based in the UK with over 3.1 million customers, further operations in 13 countries and over 23 million accounts licensed worldwide to its green technology platform, Kraken. Internally its called Winder (wind-Tinder, geddit?). [72], Responding to Octopus Energy's decision on Twitter, Andrew Neil, founder of GB News, said "Let me know if you want to advertise. There, Rebecca was Head of Marketing for Dyno Rod, and Head of Product for Hive 2 Thermostats, one of the most sought-after energy products of its time. Jon has worked for the last 18 years building a number of successful energy challengers, service innovators and disruptors across both Australia and the UK. Are people working at your company happy? These are things we should do everything to avoid., He believes the energy crisis has underscored the need for Britain to move away from oil and gas. I speak to tech founder and CEO of Octopus Energy Greg Jackson about how he used tech as the platform to disrupt one of the industries most resistant to, and in need of disrup Show Leaders in Cleantech, Ep Greg Jackson, Octopus - 75 - Apr 8, 2021 A day later, Generation Investment Management, a fund chaired by Al Gore, committed to a $600m investment in Octopus. survey and was one of three recommended providers. Climate change is no longer this vague thing: people are literally baking in India and Pakistan, he says. [73], Octopus was one of a number of brands who considered pulling their advertising from the channel, with others including IKEA, Vodafone, Nivea, Kopparberg, Grolsch, the Open University, OVO Energy and LV=. Elsewhere, a vast screen displays the progress of Plots for Kilowatts, a scheme that matches areas where residents have said theyll put up with an onshore windfarm in return for lower bills with areas where landowners are keen to host one. After graduating I joined Procter & Gamble and went through management training, owned and turned around a number of small ventures, and I even managed a factory that made and sold Mirrors at one point. For those that don't know Octopus Energy, they are UK's fastest growing green energy retailer and are currently valued at $2 billion. I want them to feel happy and fulfilled by the work they do. [35] As a result of these acquisitions, Octopus now has retail, generation or technology licences in 13 countries across four continents. Growth? Energetic and emotionally intelligent, Tara has almost 20 years of experience in developing breakthrough customer strategies and bringing out the best, most caring sides of individuals and teams doing the most vital of jobs, customer operations. As a Senior Partner and Managing Director at BCG, Deepak gained extensive experience transforming legacy businesses through technology, working across the UK, Nordics, US, South East Asia and India. Hey I'm Constantine, welcome to Octopus Energy! Our team is made up of climate enthusiasts who know that switching people to green energy and growing that customer base around the world is the number one thing we can do to turn the tide on climate change. Octopus took on 600,000 customers from bust Avro Energy last year, and Jackson accuses the administrators of arguing and quibbling over completely unimportant technical points. [45][46] At the time of the acquisition, the generation assets were reported to be worth over 3.4billion. We then realised the change within the energy industry we could enable with a strong technology platform underpinning us, and thats how Octopus Energy came about. Greg is an experienced digital entrepreneur, passionate about making the green energy revolution affordable through technology. It was the companys third major investment round since launching to the market. Jackson reaffirmed that Octopus had not boycotted the channel. Fellow green energy group Bulb went bust last November and remains in special administration. [34], In August 2021, Octopus entered the Spanish market with the acquisition of green energy start-up Umeme. With the crisis that toppled so many suppliers continuing to rage, Jackson thinks the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, is right to plough 15bn into addressing the cost of living: It makes economic sense for the government to find ways to bring bills and inflation down. Whos Here   You also cannot deny the sheer will and determination of Jeff Bezos, and how he has managed to create not only the worlds largest online shopping and delivery site, but also revolutionise cloud computing via AWS, something we have made huge use of with our business. Octopus are on a mission to bring cheaper, greener power to all. Greg: The desire for their colleagues to be happy and successful. He now runs Octopus, the green energy supplier founded in 2015 and valued at 4bn, with more than 3 million customers in 14 countries and backers including former US vice-president Al Gore. We'll monitor any new channels (including this) before running ads and will only advertise if balanced and meets our policies", "As per my message, we didn't boycott - I wanted to see the channel and am true to my word", "GB News hails boycott victory - Full list of advertisers BACKING Andrew Neil's channel", "Octopus Energy's Greg Jackson: 'Climate change is no longer this vague thing', Timeline of the electricity supply industry, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006, Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology, Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, Association for the Conservation of Energy, Double Glazing & Conservatory Ombudsman Scheme, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Octopus_Energy&oldid=1128995384, Electric power companies of the United Kingdom, Renewable resource companies established in 2015, Renewable energy companies of the United Kingdom, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2021, Articles containing potentially dated statements from September 2021, All articles containing potentially dated statements, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Greg Jackson (CEO), Stuart Jackson (CFO), James Eddison (CTO), Zoisa North-Bond (CEO, Octopus Generation), Rebecca Dibb-Simkin (CMO), Peter Miller (Customer Experience) Fiona Howarth (CEO, Octopus Electric Vehicles), This page was last edited on 23 December 2022, at 02:23. Last holiday Cotswold Water Park, with family and friends. Our last question before ending this interview is around environmentally sustainable businesses and their impact on climate change. Devrim is the CEO of KrakenFlex, formerly Upside Energy, which joined the Octopus Energy Group in 2020 to add another layer of capabilities to Octopus's energy technology platform, 'Kraken'. Greg Jackson on Twitter: "Octopus Energy recent commitments: 10,000,000 to build a decarb of heat R&D centre 5,000,000 to establish the Centre for Net Zero 108,000 to its BLM fund 1,000 ad on a right wing channel So, 15,108x more on progressive stuff More soon, but hope perspective helps." / Twitter. Our first guest is Greg Jackson, CEO and founder of Octopus Energy who will kick the series off on Thursday 26 January. Driving full energy system change, the Group consists of 10 businesses across the energy value chain, operating in 8 countries globally and supporting 3.2 million customers in the UK. Please talk us through your entrepreneurial journey from when you graduated Cambridge University in 1994 to when you cofounded Octopus Energy in 2015? The boss of Octopus Energy has a small tub, which pleases him as it is efficient and fills quickly. Greg Jackson and his gyms have won five World MMA Awards altogether. [5], By April 2018, the company had 198,000 customers and had made an energy procurement deal with Shell. Jackson declined to comment on it. Quick and essential guide to domestic and global politics from the New Statesman's politics team. [49], In January 2021, Octopus acquired two 73 metre (240') wind turbines to power their 'Fan Club' tariff, which offers households living near its turbines cheaper electricity prices when the wind is blowing strongly. On 26 September, it was announced that Octopus would be taking on the 580,000 former customers of Avro Energy, which had ceased trading the previous week. Our middle management team in operations - which makes up most of our team - fares even better, being made up of 80% women and most of them have been with us from the first 50 employees we hired, showing that people are happy here and like to stay. Greg: Weve been rapidly growing and in December closed our second financing round with Tokyo Gas and Origin Energy in 2020, which increased our valuation to more than $2 billion. In regards to your global expansion plans, Octopus Energy is currently located in three continents, do you have any plans of expanding into Africa or acquiring any green energy businesses in Africa? Aside from that, every experience has helped in some way or another, and been a vital lesson to learn to get me where I am today. A newsletter showcasing the finest writing from the ideas section and the NS archive, covering political ideas, philosophy, criticism and intellectual history - sent every Wednesday. [32] In September of that year, Octopus acquired Evolve Energy, a US Silicon Valley-based start-up, in a $5m deal. Building on the award winning end-to-end entech platform, Kraken Utilities will create customer centricity and automated, scalable and efficient operations for other traditionally low-tech sectors, allowing innovation at pace. The project, which coincided with COP26, was realised in Glasgow through collaboration with the local art community, and was designed as a call for global leaders to invest in renewable energies such as solar PV, in order to power a sustainable future. [1] Epitomising the agile leadership that is synonymous with disruptive businesses, Zoisa leads both the generation the business retail arm of Octopus Energy. We scaled the business by repeatedly cloning micro businesses, and what works for us wont work for other businesses. The New Statesmans weekly environment email on the politics, business and culture of the climate and nature crises - in your inbox every Thursday. Jackson and his family moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico when he was three years old. Origin invested a further $50m at the same time, to maintain its 20% stake. The UKs biggest energy companies might shrug off such strident criticism from a campaigner, but Octopus has rapidly ascended to challenge what Jackson, 50, calls the lazy oligopoly of the big six. A relaxed evening talking with Greg Jackson, the founder and Phil Steele Future Technology Evangelist of Octopus Energy.You can email the Octopus team as ref. What inspired this leadership technique and what are the pros and cons of Octopus Energy not having a HR department? Greg is also a strong advocate of maintaining a good work-life balance with his work-life blend, which to him means creating a symbiotic, rather than a compartmentalised relationship between his various work commitments and personal life, so he can remain present in all of them. [37], In January 2022 Octopus Energy entered the French market with the acquisition of Plm nergie, a French energy start-up with 100,000 retail and corporate accounts. Plm was subsequently rebranded as Octopus Energy France. Its technology platform Kraken also achieves dramatically lower cost to serve than rivals, so cheaper, green power is delivered hand in hand with unbeaten customer satisfaction levels. Diversity is extremely important during our hiring process, and we anonymise CVs so that we can hire for the people behind the name and profile. There is growing evidence that diverse workforces are more productive than non-diverse workforces. A quick update on the week in companies, markets, finance and the world of work. [64] Kraken also has strategic partnerships with Hanwha Group and Tokyo Gas. [19], In 2020 Octopus completed two funding rounds totalling $577m, making the company the highest funded UK tech start-up that year. What is the secret behind the growth and success of Octopus Energy? Fiona studied Engineering, Economics and Management at Oxford, and initially worked at BMW on a hydrogen fuel cell for an auxiliary power unit, as part of a hydrogen car that used a combustion engine. [60], In March 2020 it was announced that E.ON and its Npower subsidiary had licensed the technology to manage their combined 10 million customers. HR in all companies will be looking for how they can improve value to businesses, and there are always conversations to be had about alternative models from which we can all learn. 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