Flexible Power - Why we Backed Flower to Build a More Resilient Grid
Founder Co-founder & CEO John Diklev
Last week our portfolio company Flower announced the closing of its €45m funding round. The round was led by Northzone with participation from Giant Ventures. Flower is a portmanteau of two words, Flexible Power, which also happens to be the simplest description of what they do.
Flower make sure power is delivered to the grid when and where it is needed. They achieve this with machine-learning software that optimises renewable energy generation and storage assets across Europe, and by developing grid-scale batteries and energy storage systems.
This is an increasingly important problem to solve. The grid is fragile (just like a flower) because of two key factors: unpredictable energy supply and more electrified assets connected to the grid.
First, our energy supply has become more unpredictable. In the first half of 2024 wind and solar provided more energy in Europe than fossil fuels. This is good news for solving climate change but bad news for the grid since these energy supplies are intermittent, meaning they don’t produce power consistently. Intermittency is unhelpful when supply falls short of demand, and without batteries we resort to expensive and polluting electricity generation from fossil fuels to solve it.
Second, the number of electrified assets connected to the grid has increased dramatically. Solar installations increased over 3x, heat pumps more than 2x, and EVs almost 4x between 2019 and 2023. These assets not only replace demand for fossil fuels with electricity, increasing overall demand strain on the grid and transmission lines, but they are decentralised. Decentralisation makes the balancing equation harder for local grid operators to manage as the system is now more complex.
John Diklev founded Flower in 2020 to help make the fragile grid more resilient. Four years on, Flower is already making a huge difference.
Flower has built a world-class machine-learning software for managing energy assets that is generating millions in revenue. This optimisation software is crucial for a well-functioning grid, since with intermittency and many end-point energy assets comes operational complexity. Batteries are in the crucible of this complexity. Batteries can provide power at peak times, they can be a guaranteed source of energy ahead of time, they can regulate the frequency of the whole grid by ensuring demand and supply are matched, and they can effectively “trade” the energy markets by drawing electricity when prices are low and distributing it when prices are high. But batteries cannot do all of these things simultaneously. Optimising a battery means monitoring the energy market in real-time and tasking the battery with the highest revenue-generating activities accordingly. Flower handles this in an automated way for batteries and other renewable assets, creating value for the entire grid.
Flower has also developed a portfolio of grid-scale battery projects. Its largest project to date is a 42.5MW facility in Bredhälla, Sweden, which it acquired in April this year. This energy storage is already helping solve the problem of intermittency from renewable energy sources across Europe.
Taking on grid-scale energy challenges and working with major utilities companies is hugely ambitious and takes great execution. The scale Flower has achieved in such a short time and the trust they have won from some of Europe’s largest energy companies are testaments to John’s tenacity and drive. We are very excited to support the team in the next chapter of its growth story.
PS - we are planning an event to dive into much more detail on grid resilience and the future of the battery and energy storage systems market. If you are interested in joining or you think you have insights to share as a potential participant, please contact Will Dufton.