SunContract receives $2.3M EU grant for R&D project

Project Development and August AMA answers!

Published in

@SunContract

7 min readSep 5, 2019

Dear SunLovers,

As promised, we have taken a look at your AMA questions and compiled the respective answers. But before we dive into those answers, here’s a highlight we think you’ll be interested to learn about:

SunContract to receive funding from the Ministry of Economy and EU Grants

We’re proud to announce that together with our Slovenian partner SONCE energija, SunContract has been selected as an R&D project — supported by the Ministry of Economy and EU grants, where a consortium of 5 companies will receive 2.1 million EUR ($2,300,000 USD) to introduce artificial intelligence and automated trading on the SunContract platform.

The project will be ongoing for the next 3 years, and its aim is to concretely show the positive business effects of blockchain technology and P2P energy trading, when upgraded with automated trading based on Artificial Intelligence.

Because this is emerging news even for us as a team, we will be sharing more information on this project at a later time. However, we cannot express how thankful we are to the Ministry of Economy who is using EU grants for this door-opening opportunity. To say that we are humbled, would be an understatement!

Now, let’s talk AMA!

Platform, Customer & SNC Token Questions:

“Will it be possible at some point to buy energy cross-border? Maybe with some special partnerships for example that Sweden can buy from an Italian producer?”

Yes, it will.

“Is the platform safe and working perfectly? From algorithm to blockchain field?”

Yes, the platform is working as we expected it to. We continue to improve its functionality based on feedback we receive from our existing customers and supporters.

“Can you tell us more about the worldwide usage of SNC? What is this product you’re developing? When is it going to be released?”

Global adoption of SNC is still very much in our pipeline. We’re working on creating a conducive international business environment where the new services we create can be used on global scale. We will share more on the services we’re innovating as we get closer to launching them.

“Is there any estimation of how many households will be SunContract members either as consumers or producers by the end of the year? And will you share a report about this?”

Our goal is to increase the previous year’s revenue a couple of times. At the moment, we are preparing new yearly contracts for the customer on-boarding process at the beginning of 2020 (Most contracts with the previous energy supplier are on a yearly basis which is why the bulk of our on-boarding happens in the new year). In the meantime, we are monitoring the results of our marketplace sales and are happy with the general trend.

“How many customers do we have?”

We have different customers on the platform. In terms of energy buyers/consumers, our cutomsers range from households, to commercial customers to industrial facilities. In terms of green energy producers (sellers) on the platform, we have both residential and commercial generators of green energy.
The size of our customers vary in size, and so do their energy consumption and production amounts. This being said, the number of customers is not a parameter we use to gauge growth. Our chosen performance indicator is revenue.
All this being said, we can confirm that we are every day receiving more and more registered customers on the platform.

“What is the percentage of SunContract usage against total green energy usage in Slovenia and does it meet project expectations?”

The SunContract platform is the only platform at this time that has just renewable energy producers onboard.
Given we have only been in the market for a little over a year, there cannot be major market share achieved yet. But our first year has been very fruitful and indicative of our project’s immense potential to grow thanks to our unique business model.

“Is it still possible to buy solar panels and heat pumps with SNC token? Is there a discount if paying with SNC token? Do you have any other plans for the future using SNC token as a payment method?”

Yes, you can buy solar power systems, heat pump solutions or electricity using the SNC tokens.
Actually, all energy revenue on the platform is conducted in SNC tokens. (Customers can opt to use EUR or SNC but behind the scenes, all the transactions are settled on the blockchain using SNC token).
SONCE energija, our local partner accepts SNC tokens for all self-sufficiency products which they sell on the platform in Slovenia.

“Are there any goals in terms of number of customers by a certain deadline (for example: 50k 2020; 100k July 2020; .. )”

We have plans to enlarge revenue in 2020 few times in comparison to the year 2019. We can then calculate it to average customer as well but in energy sector, there are other statistical values we compare, other than number of customers.

Monaco & Other Event-Related Questions:

“What were the results of the world forum for the ultra rich?”

The Monaco Family Office Summit was very successful. We introduced our unique business proposition to some of the biggest investors in the world.
Thanks to our attendance of this gathering, we have opened a lot of doors for financial partnerships especially for global expansion of the project. At this time however, we can not reveal much more.

“Will you share some information on what happened in Monaco? Did you get some interested partners?”

We met some very interested investors and we have started to build our relationships with them.

“What has the outcome been from the trip to Monaco at the family Office?”

Many new contacts which we are working on as our potential financial partners for global expansion.

“Since you aren’t looking for money, it is weird to then go look for money, what is the reason behind this?”

For global expansion, we will need some financial partners. We are in the field of energy — which as you may know, is very capital intensive. That’s why we go to some of these events where we can network for our future plans.

“Will we get some more insights about events ahead in the near future?”

Regarding future events, we are now focusing more on customer acquisition on the platform. This month, we will be attending the biggest fair in Slovenia, called MOS, to introduce P2P energy marketplace again to Slovenian customers and to acquire new ones.

Website Questions:

“When new website?”

New website will be live this year. We know we have postponed it a few times, the team has been extremely busy. We apologize for this delay and hope you will love the new look of the upcoming website. We are also working on a rebranding from the marketing perspective. Keep an eye out.

Roadmap and Expansion-Related Questions:

“What is your roadmap for the future (2020–2022 or 2025)? Since you have already accomplished all the milestones in your first roadmap, it would be nice the next one. Will you be preparing one?”

The old roadmap is already outdated, because the platform was already developed and successfully implemented in the energy market.
We are continuously innovating and preparing for new regulatory changes in the energy scene. A big part of our roadmap over the next few years is preparing for entry into new markets and development of new energy services.
We plan to disclose some of our upcoming and exciting services soon, once we are ready to implement them. However, we do not want to disclose too much at this time, because not only you our supporters are monitoring our progress, but also our competitors.

“When will you be arriving to Spain?”

For opening P2P market in Spain, we do not have an exact date yet. If there is some interest from some utilities or other Spanish partners, please do let us know.

“Status on Italy, is this ever gonna happen?”

It is going to happen, we are working on it. We wish it would be faster too. But we must comply and work with existing legislations in Italy.

“Status on other countries, if any are gonna happen?”

After we open the first new country, other ones will be faster to follow.