Since launching in 2015, Octopus Energy has raced to become the UK’s largest domestic electricity supplier by market share, and in recent years has grown its empire through a series of at least 15 acquisitions.
With the reputation it’s gained across Europe’s ecosystem — and a huge $2.5bn of VC capital raised to date, according to Dealroom — it’s no wonder that employees of the company are inspired to start ventures of their own in the hopes of emulating that success.
Here are six companies that former full-time Octopus employees (not including those that worked at companies acquired by the company) have founded.
If there’s anyone else who should be included, let us know.
Adam James — Modbox
Role at Octopus Energy: James sat on Octopus’s commercial procurement team for a year before leaving in December 2017.
New venture: In April 2018, he cofounded Modbox with his twin brother Peter. Modbox specialises in making structural frames that can be used for different purposes such as shipping containers, building blocks and modular commercial spaces. These can be broken down into modules and shipped to customers.
Charlie Cook — Rightcharge
Role at Octopus Energy: Cook was head of electric vehicle charging at Octopus for three years before leaving to start EV charging startup Rightcharge in August 2020.
New venture: Rightcharge focuses on helping business customers manage their employee vehicle charging activity and expenditure. It also offers energy tariff comparison and installation services, and has raised around £1.45m from investors including Plural partner Ian Hogarth, American news publication Axios’s cofounder Mike Allen and Link Capital.
👉 Read: How green is Octopus Energy?
Andrei Petric — SiteAssist
Role at Octopus Energy: Petric was a lead software engineer for Octopus between August 2020 and September 2021.
New venture: He left to become cofounder and CTO of SiteAssist, an AI-powered platform that supports compliance and safety assessments for high-risk industries, such as construction, nuclear and oil and gas.
Vincent Uhlke — Happylisting.ai
Role at Octopus Energy: Uhlke worked at Octopus Energy for 11 months as a software engineer before leaving in August 2022.
New venture: In December 2022, he founded happylisting.ai, which uses AI tools to help real estate agents geolocate new properties in Mallorca to make it easier to find, filter and organise residences.
Julius Baghdadi — Moca energy
Role at Octopus Energy: From October 2023 to January 2024, Baghdadi worked on the Octopus Energy Hatchery, the organisation’s energy-transition focused incubator. He then cofounded Octopus Hydrogen, the business arm that builds green hydrogen production facilities.
New venture: In December 2023, he started Moca energy, a platform that helps real estate owners derisk their portfolios, plus comply with energy regulations and net zero plans.
Moj Abubakr — Unlocked Homes
Role at Octopus Energy: Abubakr was a lead software engineer at Octopus for two years before leaving in 2022 to join Ev.energy as an engineering manager. In February 2023, he joined Antler’s London cohort and then took part in the ZINC venture builder later in the year.
New venture: In March 2024, he founded Unlocked Homes, an AI-powered app to buy and sell residential properties that is currently in beta mode.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/octopus-energy-alumni-2024/
