Orus Energy has raised €2.2 million in a pre-seed funding round to advance its platform aimed at decarbonizing the power grid. The funding will help the company enhance its demand-side flexibility platform, which enables commercial building operators to automatically adjust energy consumption during peak periods. By modulating the power usage of flexible equipment such as heating systems and EV chargers based on grid demands, Orus Energy reduces reliance on polluting peak periods.
Co-founder and COO Fanny Sauvée highlighted the growing pressures on the power grid due to the rise of intermittent renewable energy sources and the increased electrification of uses like electric vehicles and heat pumps. She emphasized the critical role of the grid in balancing production and consumption, which is becoming increasingly challenging.
Orus Energy’s software optimizes the aggregated flexibility of numerous buildings, dynamically adjusting energy usage to times when electricity is cheaper and greener. The platform uses machine learning to predict electricity consumption and flexibility needs in buildings, enabling intelligent and dynamic control of various flexible energy-consuming assets like heat pumps and thermostats. By leveraging the thermal inertia of buildings, Orus Energy shifts power demand without impacting occupant comfort and can remunerate clients up to 10% of their electricity bills for participating.
CEO and co-founder Alexandre Girard stated that Orus Energy’s mission is to enable decarbonized power grids through consumer involvement. He explained that using buildings as thermal batteries at scale can help unlock 6 gigawatts of power demand in France alone by 2030.
Since its commercial launch in 2023, Orus Energy has registered over 1 million square meters of real estate space on its platform and deployed its solution in buildings of high-profile clients such as IKEA and La Poste Immobilier. The funding round was led by b2venture, Asterion Ventures, and Ring Capital, with participation from several industry angel investors, including Pierre Trémolières and Myriam Maestroni.
Florian Schweitzer, founding partner of b2venture, praised the Orus Energy team for tackling significant problems and noted the mission’s potential impact on society and the economy. Orus Energy plans to develop new high-impact features and expand its customer base, aiming to build a core team of 20 people by the end of 2025.
