In just a decade, Octopus Energy has evolved from a London startup into a global force in the clean energy sector.
The company, which started with a handful of tech-savvy founders, now boasts thousands of employees and a valuation nearing $10 billion.
Earlier this year, Octopus overtook British Gas to become the largest household energy supplier in the United Kingdom, supplying green power to more than 7 million UK homes and nearly 10 million customers worldwide.
Interestingly, at the heart of its success is not just its electricity—it’s the technology that powers it.
Octopus Energy’s AI platform Kraken powering the future of energy
Octopus’s greatest asset is not its energy retail business but its proprietary AI platform, Kraken.
Originally developed to serve Octopus itself, Kraken was spun out into a separate company in 2024 and now operates as the tech backbone for energy providers across the globe.
With a suite of capabilities ranging from customer management to grid balancing and renewable integration, Kraken is fast becoming the go-to digital infrastructure for energy companies looking to modernize.
Greg Jackson, Octopus co-founder and CEO, has been clear about his intentions: Octopus was created not just to sell electricity, but to test the capabilities of Kraken in a live market.
“We created Octopus as the ‘demo client’,” Jackson said in a Wall Street Journal report.
He said Kraken “became the opportunity to prove this very disruptive approach and it’s worked so well and we’ve just been able to carry it out on a very large scale.”
From dynamic pricing models to personalized recommendations for electric vehicle charging and laundry scheduling, Kraken’s ability to collect and analyze real-time energy data has positioned it as an indispensable tool for the future of clean energy.
Kraken’s US deal with National Grid a significant milestone
This week, Kraken struck a significant deal with National Grid in the United States, marking its largest foray into the American market.
Through the partnership, Kraken will serve as the AI customer service and billing platform for 6.5 million residential, commercial, and industrial users in New York and Massachusetts.
Amir Orad, CEO of Kraken, emphasized the scale and significance of the move.
“With National Grid leading the way, we’re setting the stage for what’s next in the energy world – and we’re just getting started,” he said.
The deal makes National Grid the first major US utility to fully adopt Kraken’s platform.
The move into the American market has not been without caution though.
Orad acknowledges that the US energy sector is deeply conservative, fragmented by state regulations, and saddled with aging infrastructure.
But with a market hungry for modernization, Kraken’s entry is being seen as a wake-up call.
“The US is probably the most conservative market in energy,” Orad said in the WSJ report, however, adding that it was also a very large market and needed a lot of help because of more regulations, more distributed energy, more data centers.
We believe this will be a wake-up moment for the industry, that the time has come to seriously look at modernizing.
In Texas, Octopus is already offering real-time usage insights and incentives to encourage energy-efficient behaviour.
The company sees the potential to replicate this tech-driven engagement model nationwide.
“Zero Bills” project in UK driving tech in the energy sector
Back home in UK, a standout example of Octopus’s technology-driven approach is its “Zero Bills” project launched last year.
Homebuyers were offered a decade of free energy if they purchased properties embedded with green tech such as heat pumps, solar panels, and EV chargers.
Kraken was instrumental in monitoring energy flows and usage, helping create an optimal blueprint for a self-sustaining, energy-efficient household.
These homes allowed Kraken to learn when solar panels produced excess energy, the best time to power appliances, and how to optimize household demand to align with grid conditions.
The insights gathered could then be used to scale the model in UK or in markets overseas.
Investors buy into the tech-led clean energy model
For investors, Octopus and Kraken represent more than just green energy—they are catalysts for consumer empowerment and systemic change.
Bill Rogers, head of sustainable energies at the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, said Octopus stood out not for its retail offering, but for how it enabled customers to engage with the energy transition.
“We identified Octopus as a leader in helping consumers shift behaviour toward cleaner energy use, a critical but often overlooked part of decarbonizing energy systems,” he said in the WSJ report.
Origin Energy’s CEO Frank Calabria echoed the sentiment, citing Kraken’s role in his company’s digital transformation in Australia.
Origin now holds a 22.7% stake in both Octopus and Kraken.
Other notable investors include Generation Investment Management, chaired by Al Gore, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), and Japan’s Tokyo Gas.
Plans to reach 100 million customers globally by 2027
After already marking a foray into the US, other markets on the company’s radar include France, Italy and Japan.
Additionally, Octopus and Kraken have found eager partners not just in the West but in China as well.
Jackson recently spoke at the Sino-UK Entrepreneur Forum in London, highlighting collaborations with Chinese firms like BYD and Envision.
“My experience with Chinese companies is they move so fast and with great ambition,” he said, citing a conversation in which Envision promised a three-month turnaround for a project that would have taken years in the West.
Jackson praised China’s long-term vision in accelerating the energy transition.
“While the rest of the world hesitates, China is moving faster—and it’s going to reap the benefits. We want to take those benefits to the rest of the world through partnerships.”
Currently, Kraken is contracted to manage 70 million customers globally, with plans to reach 100 million by 2027.
Jackson believes even that number could eventually stretch to one billion.
Given the rapid expansion, growing investor trust, and the technological prowess embedded in Kraken, that ambition is no longer outlandish—it may be inevitable.
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