Companion.energy Raises €7.8 Million Seed Round to Scale Real‑Time Energy Optimisation for Industrial Enterprises Across Europe
Belgian energy tech startup Companion.energy has closed a €7.8 million seed funding round to expand its real‑time energy management platform across Europe, with Germany and Spain as the immediate priority markets. The round was led by Realyze Ventures (Germany) and Pi Labs (United Kingdom), with additional participation from Asterion Ventures, a Paris‑based impact investor making its first bet outside France, and existing backers. The announcement was made on June 8, 2026.
The raise brings Companion.energy's total disclosed funding to approximately €10 million, including a €2.1 million round completed in 2024.
The Problem Is Structural, and Getting Worse
Companion.energy was founded in 2022 by Thomas Vyncke and Jonas Verstraeten, two Belgian engineers who spotted a specific and widening gap in how large industrial companies manage their energy exposure. Electricity prices, which once moved in predictable seasonal patterns, now move by the minute. The combination of rising renewable penetration, fluctuating intraday power prices, distributed energy assets on corporate balance sheets, and growing electrification of industrial processes has transformed energy from a largely fixed operating cost into a dynamic financial risk requiring active, continuous management.
Most large enterprises, including those spending tens of millions of euros annually on energy, still rely on spreadsheets, dashboards, and manual workflows to make those decisions. Companion.energy's argument is straightforward: that approach is no longer fit for purpose, and the cost of getting energy decisions wrong is growing.
The company's platform splits into two modules. Prism models a company's operational and financial energy data, identifying where procurement, consumption, and distributed asset management can be improved. Propel takes those models and turns them into autonomous, real‑time decisions, steering distributed energy assets around the clock without human intervention. The shift from recommendation to execution is what differentiates the platform from older energy management software that surfaces insights but leaves action to analysts.
Traction That Justifies the Raise
The growth metrics Companion.energy has reported are striking for a company less than three years old. Between May 2024 and the close of this round, it grew both its customer base and revenue tenfold, surpassing €1 million in annual recurring revenue. The platform now manages more than 2 TWh of annual energy consumption and production across its client base, representing approximately €500 million in combined energy spend and revenues.
More than 200 megawatts of distributed energy assets are connected to the system, including solar, wind, batteries, EV charging infrastructure, and e‑boilers. The company serves more than 30 enterprise customers across Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Named clients include TotalEnergies, KPN, the Port of Antwerp‑Bruges, Interparking, and Proximus Group, a set of logos that spans energy, telecoms, logistics, and infrastructure. The company claims its automation reduces clients' energy costs by between 10 and 30 per cent.
That Companion.energy, a team of 19 people, manages half a billion euros in annual energy exposure for organisations of this scale is the core of the investor thesis. Small team, large asset base, meaningful cost impact.
Expansion into Germany and Spain
The new capital will fund two priorities. The first is deepening the platform's multi‑asset, multi‑market optimisation capabilities, extending its ability to manage complex portfolios of distributed energy assets simultaneously across different regulatory frameworks and market structures. The second is commercial expansion, beginning with Germany and Spain.
Germany is a particularly significant target. It is one of Europe's largest industrial economies and is undergoing a rapid and costly energy transition, with high electricity prices and intense corporate focus on energy cost management. Marnix Roes, investment manager at Realyze Ventures, described the German opportunity as massive, pointing to the growing need among industrial and commercial enterprises for tools that can manage flexibility, electrification, and energy exposure operationally rather than manually.
Dhruv Gupta, Principal at Pi Labs, described the shift Companion.energy is enabling as moving enterprise energy management from static procurement and reporting toward continuous real‑time optimisation. He characterised the platform as having changed software from a recommendation engine to a system of execution, a framing that gets at the core commercial differentiation.
Asterion Ventures, which participated alongside the two lead investors, is making its first investment outside its home French market, a sign that Companion.energy's growth profile is drawing attention beyond its immediate geography.
Key figures from the round and company:
- Seed round: €7.8 million (approximately $9 million), closed June 8, 2026
- Total funding: approximately €10 million
- Investors: Realyze Ventures (lead), Pi Labs (lead), Asterion Ventures, existing backers
- Revenue growth: tenfold in the year to mid‑2026
- Annual recurring revenue: above €1 million
- Annual energy managed: more than 2 TWh, approximately €500 million in value
- Enterprise customers: more than 30, including TotalEnergies and KPN
As European energy markets grow more volatile and industrial electrification accelerates, the window for building category‑defining energy management software is open. Companion.energy has moved quickly to establish customer density and platform depth before larger players can respond. The German and Spanish expansion will test whether the model translates beyond its current markets and whether a 19‑person team can sustain the operational quality that its enterprise client roster demands.
