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Lithuanian blockchain-based energy procurement and trading firm WePower has announced that it has secured a strategic equity investment in a seed round led by Japanese giant Marubeni Corp.
In an online post dated July 05, WePower said that it aims to utilize the funds to continue with the development of the corporate energy procurement platform, expand the sales team and explore new markets.
Reuters reported that Marubeni has issued an unspecified loan to the energy startup, convertible into shares. As to how much stake will Marubeni end up with once the loan is converted has not been yet determined, a Marubeni spokeswoman told Reuters.
WePower is essentially trying to make it easier for businesses in the small to medium sizes to purchase energy from solar and wind farms via blockchain. The startup has currently set his eyes on Australia to tap the recent surge in wind and solar power.
The intent is to address the issues that are usually involved in power purchase agreements (PPAs), which can often be complex and require long-term contract commitments. WePower aims to address these issues by offering flexibility and shorter contract periods for buyers.
This means that there will be less hesitation to enter a transaction simply because it won’t mean a decade of paying for energy that they may not need during that time. This is something that Nikolaj Martynuik, CEO and co-founder of WePower would like to hammer home.
“The only discussion point then, through the platform, is the price,” Martynuik said. “That takes a lot of the complexity out.”
WePower said that it held a number of meeting with Marubeni to discuss how it can help the latter to offer new innovative energy services for Marubeni’s corporate clients.
“We believe that WePower is in a unique position to disrupt the traditional corporate energy procurement markets by allowing almost any company to buy energy directly from renewable producers,” Yoshiaki Yokota, Chief Operating Officer, Power Business Division, said.
