We are pleased to announce that as of 1 May 2023, SMAP Energy Limited is now ENECHANGE Innovation Limited. This name change reflects the next step in our journey after becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of ENECHANGE in March 2021 and our continued aim to foster innovation links between the UK, Japan, and across the globe.
A Shared History
SMAP Energy and ENECHANGE began their story as Cambridge Energy Data Lab, a privately sponsored research lab working alongside the University of Cambridge to develop solutions to emerging challenges in the global energy sector. These challenges revolved around the “4Ds of Energy”: deregulation, digitalisation, decentralisation, and decarbonisation.
Identifying an opportunity for price comparison websites in the wake of energy market liberalisation in Japan, ENECHANGE was founded in Tokyo in 2015 — one year ahead of the Japanese energy retail market opening to competition. It quickly became the largest energy-switching company in Japan.
SMAP Energy followed shortly after and was founded in the UK in 2016. Leveraging co-founder Yohei Kiguchi’s PhD research on smart meter data analysis developed during his time at Cambridge, SMAP Energy was mainly engaged in the development and operation of SMAP, a smart meter data analysis software-as-a-service (SaaS) product for energy providers.
ENECHANGE and SMAP Energy maintained close ties, frequently working together to deploy new software products in Japan. This relationship culminated in ENECHANGE’s acquisition of SMAP Energy, and, after becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary, this service formed the beginnings of ENECHANGE’s Data business. By FY22, the Data business had grown to generate 969M JPY (approximately 5.6M GBP) in revenue and 163M JPY (approximately 1M GBP) in operating profit.
Our role in future growth
Now known as ENECHANGE Innovation Limited, we are continuingto seek out innovative business solutions with the potential for deployment in the Japanese energy sector. From our hub in London and with colleagues spread around the world, we are able to identify the latest trends and support a range of organisations that are part of the wider ENECHANGE portfolio, including the ENECHANGE Insight Ventures programme and the Japan Energy Fund. Simultaneously, we continue to build on our strong history of software development and product prototyping to facilitate the creation of new business lines.
Paul Monroe, Director of ENECHANGE Innovation Limited, says:
We’ve been a part of the ENECHANGE story since our mutual inception in Cambridge, and this name change reflects our ambition to steadily build a +$1B energy tech company together. Embracing global innovation practices and cutting-edge technology is how we will achieve this and we will continue to be the vanguard of these activities for the ENECHANGE group.
For more information, please reach out to the team at info@enechange.com.
We hope you will consider following our activities via ENECHANGE’s website and announcement channels. For the latest updates on what our company is up to, please visit the following:
ENECHANGE Homepage (English) – enechange.co.jp/en/
ENECHANGE Press page – enechange.co.jp/en/news/press/