Companion.energy Raises $8.5M to Transform Enterprise Energy Management

Jan de Vries · 2026-06-08

Companion.energy, a startup based in Ghent, Belgium, just closed a massive $8.5 million Seed round. They help large industrial and commercial enterprises manage energy in real time. The funding will deepen their platform's multi-asset, multi-market optimization capabilities and fuel commercial expansion across Europe, starting with Germany and Spain. ### The Investors Behind the Round The round was led by Realyze Ventures (Germany) and Pi Labs (United Kingdom). Asterion Ventures (France) and existing investors also participated. This mix of European VCs shows strong confidence in the company's vision. Dhruv Gupta, Principal at Pi Labs, put it this way: "Enterprise energy management is moving from static procurement and reporting toward 24/7 real-time optimization. Large enterprises spending tens of millions annually on energy still rely heavily on spreadsheets, dashboards and manual workflows. Companion has built a deeply technical AI platform that fundamentally changes software from a recommendation engine to a system of execution. This is what makes this category so important."  ### What Companion.energy Actually Does Founded in 2022 by Thomas Vyncke and Jonas Verstraeten, Companion.energy helps large enterprises turn energy from a risk into a competitive advantage. Their software gives companies complete transparency on their energy economics. It runs AI-driven optimization workflows that improve contract mix and steer assets in real time. Here's what the platform handles: - **Real-time energy forecasting**: Predicts demand continuously - **Market exposure modeling**: Shows how price swings affect you - **Automated decision-making**: Executes trades and adjusts assets without manual input - **Multi-asset management**: Coordinates solar, wind, batteries, EV chargers, and more According to Thomas Vyncke, co-founder of Companion.energy, "European energy markets are undergoing a structural shift. As penetration of renewables increases and industrial demand becomes more electrified, electricity markets are becoming significantly more volatile and operationally complex. Energy prices that once moved seasonally now fluctuate in real time." He added, "At the same time, enterprises are deploying growing fleets of batteries, solar installations, EV charging infrastructure and electrified industrial systems. Most companies still manage this environment through fragmented tooling, spreadsheets and static procurement processes but they need a system that runs and optimizes energy operations continuously."  ### The Problem They're Solving Large enterprises spend tens of millions of dollars annually on energy. Yet many still manage it with spreadsheets and quarterly check-ins. That's like flying a plane with a paper map and a compass. You'll get there eventually, but you'll burn a lot more fuel along the way. Jonas Verstraeten, co-founder of Companion.energy, explained: "We started Companion because we believed the energy transition would force every large industrial enterprise to manage energy actively, and that they would not be able to do that with spreadsheets and quarterly check-ins. The work of the next decade is to give those teams software that can keep up. This round lets us bring that software to many more enterprises, and help them turn their energy from a competitiveness risk into a competitive advantage." ### Real Results for Real Customers The company already serves more than 30 enterprise customers across Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Big names like TotalEnergies, KPN, Port of Antwerp-Bruges, Interparking, and Proximus Group are on board. Their customers span manufacturers, logistics operators, telecom companies, EV charging operators, and other large energy consumers. Over the past year, Companion.energy expanded its customer base and revenue ten times. They're now exceeding $1.1 million in annual recurring revenue. That's impressive for a startup that's only been around since 2022. The platform manages more than 2 TWh of annual energy consumption and production across customer portfolios. That represents approximately $550 million in annual energy spend and revenue. It already supports more than 200 MW of distributed energy assets, including solar PV, wind, batteries, e-boilers, and EV charging infrastructure. ### The Bottom Line Clients using the platform benefit from autonomous decision-making that maximizes energy assets in real time. The result? Energy cost reductions of 10 to 30 percent. For companies spending millions on energy annually, that's a huge savings. The company states it connects energy contracts, operational systems, and distributed assets into a single optimization platform. It continuously forecasts demand, models market exposure, and automates energy decisions in real time. The platform helps enterprises optimize procurement decisions, steer assets dynamically, and improve the economics of electrification at scale. As energy markets get more volatile and complex, tools like Companion.energy's platform are becoming essential. The days of managing energy with spreadsheets are numbered. Real-time, AI-driven optimization is the new standard.