Al Gore fund takes $600m stake in UK’s Octopus Energy

Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management bought a $600m stake in the UK’s Octopus Energy, a supplier of renewable energy.

Generation’s Long-Term Equity fund will own a 13% stake, boosting Octopus’s valuation to $4.6bn, the utility said in a statement on Monday. Octopus plans to use the capital to “turbo boost” its green energy business.

The announcement comes days after Octopus was appointed by national energy regulator Ofgem to take on the 580,000 customers of failed supplier Avro Energy. Seven utilities have collapsed since the start of August, squeezed by an unprecedented increase in wholesale prices. The investment will help Octopus bear the costs of taking on those customers, with Ofgem’s supplier-of-last-resort process also contributing.

“While the UK energy market is currently in a tough state, it’s highlighted the need for investment in renewables and technologies to end our reliance on fossil fuels,” said Octopus CEO Greg Jackson.

The investment will help Octopus in its work to develop cheaper, less-polluting heat pumps and to make the grid use renewable supplies more efficiently, the utility said. The deal has been in the making for several months, before the current crisis started.

In March, Octopus acquired a 2.8GW portfolio of renewables assets across Europe worth £3bn, aligning its business with larger international suppliers such as EON and Electricite de France that combine renewable generation with customer supply.

Octopus has become the fifth-biggest supplier in Britain since its launch five years ago, and it also has customers in the US, Germany, Spain and New Zealand. The utility also developed a network of 100,000 electric-vehicle chargers in the UK.

The deal with Gore’s firm consists of a $300m immediate investment, with $300m to follow by June 2022, subject to “certain further funding conditions”.

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