Our Investment in Axle Energy: Turning Everyday Energy Devices into Grid-Scale Flexibility
Renewable energy sources have been dominating new power installations worldwide as energy demand has increased. With solar panels and wind farms, however, comes a problem — they work well only when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing. To truly benefit from them and shave peak demand, we need either grid-scale batteries or the ability to shift energy consumption to the periods when renewable energy is abundant and cheap. The former requires enormous capital investment, and the latter is a massive coordination problem that proved particularly hard to solve until recently.
Much of the flexibility the grid needs already exists, sitting in homes, businesses, and vehicle fleets around the world. Millions of connected devices have batteries and can shift energy consumption. Coordinated together, they can behave like a power plant, helping to stabilize the grid, reducing reliance on expensive generation, and creating value for consumers.
That is the future that Axle Energy is building for and that we are looking forward to continuing to support with a $25 million Series A, alongside Energize Capital, Picus Capital, and Eka Ventures.
Unlocking capacity that already exists
Axle helps OEMs, utilities, and fleet operators connect distributed energy assets to electricity markets. Its platform uses EVs, chargers, batteries, heat pumps, and other smart devices to help balance supply and demand. When electricity is abundant, devices can increase consumption or store energy. When the grid is under pressure, they can reduce demand or discharge stored power.
The result is a platform that turns everyday energy devices into grid assets. Axle handles the full value chain, from connecting assets and forecasting availability to aggregating devices, bidding into electricity markets, dispatching assets, and settling payments. Axle shares the revenue it creates via this virtual power plant with OEMs and consumers.
The coordination layer the grid now needs
What makes Axle compelling is that it sits at the intersection of several shifts happening at once. Energy demand is rising. Supply is becoming more variable. Consumers, OEMs, and grid operators are all looking for ways to lower costs.
Axle estimates there are around 75 million eligible energy assets across Europe and the US, representing roughly 375GW of potential flexible capacity. Unlocking even a fraction of that could meaningfully change how grids are balanced. It could also bring new capacity online in weeks rather than the years required to permit and build conventional infrastructure.
That is a powerful opportunity because it makes better use of the infrastructure that is already in place. Rather than waiting for the grid to be rebuilt around new demand patterns, Axle is helping coordinate the devices and assets that are already connected and already capable of responding.
A team that saw the gap early
Before starting Axle, Karl Bach and Archy de Berker spent years working on electricity markets and saw firsthand how difficult it was for distributed assets to participate in grid-balancing markets. That experience gave them an early view of the gap between how power systems operate today and how they will need to operate in the future.
What stands out about Karl, Archy, and the Axle team is the combination of energy market expertise, engineering brilliance, and product ambition. They have already built a platform that coordinates more than 300,000 connected assets and more than 2GW of flexible capacity, with consumers collectively earning millions through Axle-enabled programmes. That is a strong signal of both product-market fit and the scale of the opportunity ahead.
We believe Axle is helping define an important layer of the future energy system. As power demand keeps rising and grids become more complex, the ability to unlock flexibility from infrastructure that already exists will matter more and more.
Axle is turning everyday energy devices into valuable grid assets, and in doing so, making the grid itself more efficient, more resilient, and more scalable.
