Backing Modo: Asset Success for the Future of Energy Systems
TL;DR: Modo are building the data platform to facilitate Asset Success for our future energy systems, starting with energy storage. Modo’s independent data is aggregated from 15+ sources to provide focused and actionable insights on markets and asset performance, helping to accelerate the renewable shift in energy grids.
Made in Birmingham
What do photocopiers, Ozzy Osbourne and Cadburys all have in common?
Birmingham’s latest contribution to the world is Modo Energy. Founded by engineers and school friends Quentin and Tim, the duo are building a data-driven SaaS platform to deliver focused and actionable insights on energy storage through user-centric interfaces. In essence, Modo is all about facilitating Asset Success in the midst of rapidly evolving energy systems, helping provide stakeholders with the clarity and confidence to drive the transition to net zero.
Quentin Draper-Scrimshire (CEO), was most recently Head of Energy Storage at Kiwi Power, and before this he spent 4 years at Centrica as an Engineer where he worked on battery energy storage projects. His Co-founder Tim Overton (COO), had previously spent 6 years as an engineer in the energy space with Fichtner. Over an impromptu beer (and yes, curry) with Quentin, it was clear Modo have the ambition, domain expertise and laser focus on execution to win this market.
We are excited to be partnering with Quentin and Tim in the latest investment from Triple Point’s Impact EIS, Modo Energy. We are participating in Modo’s £3.2m Seed round alongside Fred Olson and existing investors Catalyst Capital.
The Future of Energy Systems
To meet the world’s decarbonisation goals we need more renewable energy on the grid. In the UK alone the latest Future Energy Scenarios report indicates installed capacity of wind and solar will more than double by 2035 to 91 GW.
Such renewables are great for lowering emissions but result in intermittent power generation and the resultant need for a Balancing Mechanism (“BM”) to prevent blackouts and keep the grid frequency at 50 Hertz. With more renewables resulting in greater grid volatility and the BM currently being over-reliant on fossil fuels, the emerging global battery energy storage market is expected to grow at a 23% CAGR to 2030.
Currently there is a lack of structured data infrastructure and tools to assist the energy storage market to accurately perform monitoring, reporting, validation and tracking of assets. But why?
- Energy markets are becoming increasingly decentralised and interconnected, resulting in opacity and silo-ing
- With an explosion of distributed energy resources (“DER”), the grid is becoming increasingly decentralised. DER are small-scale electricity supply or demand resources that are plugged into the electric grid, e.g. microturbines, solar arrays, small wind farms, battery energy storage systems. As ancillary markets are capped by volume, understanding where assets are already committed and how much room there might be in a particular auction is essential in users evaluating pricing and market strategy.
- To add an additional layer of complexity, international energy grids are becoming increasingly interconnected. In the UK we currently have 7 interconnections (1x Norway, 2x Ireland, 1x Netherlands, 1x Belgium, 2x France) reflecting 7 GW of power. Many more are expected to come online in the near-term with OFGEM planning to increase capacity to 16 GW by 2025. Likewise, the EU has set an interconnector target of 15% of grid capacity by 2030.
2. Data sharing infrastructure is built for traditional linear flows, rather than the distributed, connected grids of the future
- As a result data often has to be shared manually, in bespoke formats, through a number of different channels. Consequently, connectivity is often low fidelity, late and expensive.
- With prohibitive costs, such connections are only made for the largest and most strategic sources of supply / demand, reducing the quality of data available.
- The result, current data sources are highly fragmented and siloed in specific industry verticals and governing bodies.
Defining a Category
Starting with Energy Storage, Modo are creating Europe’s first Asset Success platform. By providing an independent source of market and asset performance data, Modo helps funds, banks, investors, and many others to gain clarity on how different assets are performing and optimise efficiency accordingly.
Data is aggregated from over 15 sources through partnerships, paid relationships, screen scraping and open sources. Modo’s in-house data science team then clean and structure this data using proprietary algorithms and models to provide structured output which can be relied upon for analysis. Modo’s data can then be assessed directly through API integration or viewed in their curated dashboard.
Students of the PLG mantra, Modo’s freemium model has seen rapid adoption of their platform in their beachhead market. Modo’s asset performance data is now the industry standard in the GB energy storage sector and used by more than half of energy storage asset owners in their reports, audits and business cases.
But, how do you go about creating a new category? Just as Hubspot did with inbound marketing, it helps to start the conversation and through Modo’s media platform, Phase, they have done just this.
BESS. STOR. DSR. ANM. The energy industry loves an acronym and in a market that is rapidly evolving there are plenty about. Phase is here to simplify things, providing a range of unique insights, in-depth research, and expert analysis via their Podcast and Energy Academy. Phase is core to Modo’s DNA, with every employee being expected to produce content when needed.
As luck would have it I didn’t need to look far for the perfect example of how Modo is spearheading this new category. Triple Point’s own Energy Efficiency fund had just started to invest in battery storage systems and were already avid consumers of Modo’s content, with an almost evangelical NPS amongst the team.
At Triple Point, we believe that Modo’s vision of Asset Success will be key to facilitating the necessary transition to more sustainable energy systems. We’re excited to be working with Modo to help them realise this vision!
About Triple Point Ventures: Triple Point has been investing in early-stage businesses for over 15 years and manages over £2.5bn of assets. Our team of 150 investment professionals has invested over £600m into early-stage UK businesses, including LendInvest, Capital On Tap, Ably, Vyne, Contis, Credit Kudos and Quit Genius. Find out more at www.triplepoint.vc
Sources
- Lessons from Plaid on a Future Energy Unicorn | Kim Zou and Sophie Purdom
