UK-based clean tech startup tepeo has raised £10.5 million in series A funds from investors led by UK/Ireland growth capital investor BGF.
The round is also backed by the UK government-backed Clean Growth Fund, which closed £40 million in 2020 to support emerging low-carbon technologies, UK public coffers supplying 50% of that amount.
tepeo's £10.5 million round also includes equity funds from Bonheur, a Norway-listed energy, real estate and shipping holding company, and Renewable Environmental Investments, whose core deal mandate includes solar and wind energy, EVs and battery storage.
tepeo aims to decarbonise domestic heating grids through the use of its ZEB boiler system that automatically heats up at carbon-efficient times of the day. The boiler uses intelligent software to account for carbon intensity on the energy distribution grid, as well as responding to the customer's energy tariff and cost preferences.
The amount of energy produced by renewable solar and wind farms varies depending on the source's availability. That means domestic heating boilers could be more environmentally friendly at certain times of the day, when oil, gas and coal-based power plants are contributing less.
Touted as a direct plug-in-play replacement for conventional boilers, the tepeo product also addresses local air pollution by preventing harmful pollutants from entering the customer's air environment. The ZEB boiler is entirely driven by electricity, rather than oil or gas, and also stores heat in reserve when it's not being used.
The series A funds are expected to let tepeo launch the ZEB boiler nationally around the UK, while also growing headcount at its Wokingham-based headquarters across production, R&D, assembly and commercial.
There's further innovation on its product roadmap; from spring 2023, customers will be able to use ZEB in tandem with their property's rooftop solar panels to charge up the boiler's heating battery, reducing energy costs.
In its last fundraise, tepeo picked up £2.5 million in a seed-stage round led by the Clean Growth Fund.
Dennis Atkinson, an investor at BGF, said: "tepeo is at the forefront of the urgent activity being undertaken to reduce emissions from households and their innovative technology has an important role to play in the electrification of heating.
"tepeo's ability to store and discharge heat in a cost-effective manner will also prove crucial in delivering this transition in an efficient way, at a time when energy costs are of crucial importance to consumers."
Johan du Plessis, tepeo's CEO and founder, added: "In the last twelve months we have launched our first ZEB and received an overwhelming amount of interest from consumers. We’ve tripled the size of the business and built a solid foundation for scale.
"This investment from BGF and our existing investors will enable us to scale-up our manufacturing and commercial operations, to offer ZEBs to more and more people across the UK and to start making meaningful progress on decarbonising heating."
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