South African clean energy startup Open Access Energy (OAE) has successfully raised US$1.8 million in a seed funding round, positioning the company to expand its AI‑driven platform for electricity trading and decentralized energy operations.
Founded around 2021, OAE develops EnergyPro, a flagship cloud-based platform that enables energy wheeling, routing electricity from decentralized renewable producers (such as solar IPPs) to distributors and consumers via existing grid infrastructure. The platform automates key backend functions, including metering, risk management, forecasting, and digital settlement, allowing real-time balance of generation and consumption.
According to the startup, this software-led approach addresses one of South Africa’s most pressing challenges — critical power shortages, unreliable grid infrastructure, and rising demand for embedded generation.
The oversubscribed funding round drew participation from E3 Capital, Equator VC, and Factor E Ventures, the latter having led an earlier $750,000 equity tranche in 2023 as the first leg of its $1.5 million seed phase.
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Andrew Darge (E3 Capital) remarked:
“Open Access Energy has built a software-led solution for a real-world problem—enabling renewables to flow through existing infrastructure. The opportunity for digital technology to support municipal wheeling, embedded generation, and transparent settlement at scale is exactly what Africa’s power sector needs to drive the transition to lower carbon economies.”
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Morgan DeFoort (Equator VC) added:
“South Africa’s energy future will be shaped by private generation and local distribution of clean power. Open Access Energy is building critical infrastructure to make this possible. We’re backing a team that combines unique technical capability, strong market understanding, and stakeholder relationships.”
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Gerjo Hoffman, CEO of OAE, emphasized:
“Private generation is central to South Africa’s energy transition. This funding allows us to scale the tools that Independent Power Producers and energy traders need to participate in and benefit from the liberalised energy market.”
With the full $1.8 million in hand—up from the $750,000 milestone earlier—the startup aims to accelerate product development, secure new customers, and expand across the Southern African region. EnergyPro’s enhanced version is expected to support a growing pipeline of decentralized energy players and municipal partners exploring wheeling opportunities.
Board Chairman James Irons has also revealed plans to bring a local investment partner on board in the near future to support further growth plans.
South Africa’s energy sector is at a crossroads: Eskom’s legacy coal power plants have struggled to meet demand, leading to chronic load-shedding. In this context, platforms such as OAE’s EnergyPro are essential for facilitating embedded generation, enabling IPPs to feed electricity into municipal networks under wheeling arrangements, and ensuring revenue can reliably flow via software-driven settlement systems.
By automating forecasting, balancing, and risk controls, OAE helps partners reduce year-zero development risk and optimize utilization of decentralized clean energy assets, making renewable integration more feasible and scalable across the region.
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