Investment for Dresden energy start-up

The Cottbus-based energy group LEAG and Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen (TGFS) have jointly secured a 15 percent stake in the start-up Die Energiekoppler GmbH.

LEAG and Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen invest in Die Energiekoppler GmbH. The start-up was founded out of the Institute for Electrical Power Supply and High Voltage Technology at Dresden University of Technology. The team had been researching the start-up's technology, among other things, since 2011. The founders are Jens Werner, Tobias Heß and Irina Weis.

"With the participation of LEAG and TGFS, we are primarily securing the expansion of human resources," says Jens Werner. "We want to broaden our business. It is important to us to develop our company sustainably and achieve profitability with a clear horizon."

The start-up's product is a so-called flexibility plant, a new form of virtual power plant. The aim is to enable the control and monitoring of energy systems. The technology is intended to solve the main problems of previous virtual power plants - and make them more economical.

The energy couplers have been working together with LEAG for around two years. LEAG's Innovation Manager, Robert Klimpke, heard about the start-up and introduced the founders to the Head of Innovative Energy Solutions, Harald Altmann, in 2019. "We were in the process of launching virtual power plant services for the remote control and marketing of various energy systems onto the market ourselves," says Altmann. "The energy coupler business idea convinced us immediately."