Atomico backs Tem to help businesses buy renewable energy directly from sources
Tem wants to do for utilities what neobanks have done for the financial sector: disrupt an industry using tech, streamline it, and cut out the middlemen.
A U.K. startup wants to do for utilities what neobanks have been doing for the financial sector for more than a decade: disrupt an age-old industry using technology, streamline it and cut out the middlemen.
London-based Tem has built a marketplace and platform to connect businesses directly to renewable energy sources, and it is working with an existing Ofgem-regulated utility partner instead of applying for a supply license itself. Ultimately, Tem is all about enabling businesses to bypass so-called “big energy” and their big prices while making it easier to meet climate targets.
“We like to think of ourselves as the U.K.’s very first ‘neo-utility’,” Tem’s co-founder and CEO, Joe McDonald, told TechCrunch over email.
Founded in 2021, Tem on Wednesday said it has raised £10.5 million ($13.7 million) in a Series A round led by European venture capital firm Atomico, which closed two funds totaling $1.24 billion earlier this week. The investment comes as nations in Europe and beyond strive to reduce their carbon output and become “climate-neutral” by 2050. The U.K., specifically, is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by “at least 100% of 1990 levels” within the next 25 years.
At the same time, rising oil and gas prices have underscored the need to find an alternative solution to fossil fuels.
Aside from McDonald, Tem’s founding team includes chief technology officer Bartlomiej Szostek, chief commercial officer Jason Stocks, and Ross McKay. All three met at a startup called Limejump that used big data to disrupt the U.K. energy market, and that was where the seed for Tem was sown.