{"id":83189,"date":"2026-02-10T04:42:31","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T07:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/890971074"},"modified":"2026-02-10T04:42:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T07:42:31","slug":"tech-firm-tem-raises-75m-to-help-cut-more-energy-bills-with-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/10\/tech-firm-tem-raises-75m-to-help-cut-more-energy-bills-with-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"Tech firm Tem raises $75m to help cut more energy bills with AI"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A tech firm that reduces business energy bills by up to 30 per cent has raised $75 million in a round led by US investor Lightspeed Venture Partners.<\/p>\n

The deal is understood to value Tem, a four-year-old London company, at about $300 million. The cash will enable it to further develop its technology \u2014 which slashes the fees earned by the energy industry on each transaction \u2014 as well as to expand in the US.<\/p>\n

Joe McDonald, Tem\u2019s co-founder and chief executive, said it was using AI to replace the \u201cmiddle men\u201d. The company\u2019s software \u2014 which is already being used by 2,600 businesses, such as Boohoo and Fever-Tree, to lower their bills \u2014 matches supply and demand without the transaction needing to go via the wholesale market. <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2022 Demand for electricity in UK surges after two decades of decline<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe calculate that about $1 trillion is taken out every year in transaction fees by \u2018Big Energy\u2019. Our mission is to take that cost of transaction down to zero,\u201d said McDonald, 36.<\/p>\n

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He said that \u201cRed\u201d, Tem\u2019s neo-utility, had saved its customers $35 million since the service was launched in November 2024. Two unnamed schools have also signed up, saving one \u00a355,000 a year in fees. <\/p>\n

\u201cI do not see why every single electricity transaction will not be run by an infrastructure like ours over the next ten years,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cIt will happen, one way or another. There is too much inefficiency in that outdated process that 99 per cent of transactions currently use.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Give us credit for April bill cuts, government begs energy firms<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

The company was set up by energy experts Jason Stocks, Bartlomiej Szostek, Ross Mackay and McDonald in 2021. It has raised $94 million in investment in total, with other shareholders including Hitachi Ventures and venture firm Atomico.<\/p>\n

McDonald said Tem had set up its neo-utility \u201cas a bit of a stick\u201d to show the big energy companies what the technology could do. Long term, it wants to license its platform to utilities around the world to reduce their cost per transaction. It has two unnamed utilities already using its software, McDonald said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWith energy, the big problem sits right in the centre \u2014 the energy transaction. That transaction is ultimately owned by Big Energy. All roads lead to them,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf I am a business and am looking to buy my electricity, I am paying 25 to 30 per cent higher than the cost that energy is being generated at by an independent generator. The reason is because to complete the transaction, it goes through seven intermediaries, who all have a role to play sequentially in getting that electricity transacted to that business. <\/p>\n

\u201cYour incumbents don\u2019t have the technology and ability to re-engineer the market and no reason to, because they control it and make huge profits from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 UK councils wasted nearly \u00a32bn overpaying on energy bills<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Tem has facilitated two terawatt hours of energy transactions so far \u2014 equivalent to powering Liverpool for a year. Its Red service to businesses is managed by two AI agents, supported by a team of four. <\/p>\n

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\u201cFour humans serving the number of customers we have \u2026 the equivalent of a traditional utility would be about 170 people. It just shows the technology infrastructure allows for this improvement across the board, and all of that at the same time as lifting the customer experience,\u201d McDonald said.<\/p>\n

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A tech<\/span> firm that reduces business energy … it to further develop its technology<\/span> \u00e2\u0080\u0094 which slashes the fees earned … big energy companies what the technology<\/span> could do. Long term, it … people. It just shows the technology<\/span> infrastructure allows for this improvement …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83189\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}