The technology arm of Octopus Energy, the utility which has become one of Britain’s most valuable private companies, has lured the former boss of a Nasdaq-listed company to become its first chief executive.
Sky News understands that Kraken Technologies, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Octopus Energy Group, will this week name Amir Orad as chief executive.
Mr Orad previously ran NICE Actimize, a US-listed provider of enterprise software to global banks and Fortune 500 companies.
He has also been executive chairman of Sisense, a data analytics provider.
His appointment at Kraken will underline the scale of Octopus Energy Group’s ambitions for the business as it begins to operate with greater independence from its sister company.
Octopus Energy, which is now the UK’s second-largest domestic energy supplier behind Centrica’s British Gas, recently crystallised a valuation of more than £7bn following a secondary share sale.
The changes to the group’s shareholder base saw the arrival of Lightrock, which is chaired by Liechtenstein royal Prince Max Von Liechtenstein.
Generation Investment Management, which is chaired by the former US vice president Al Gore, is also a committed investor in the business.
Kraken provides an operating system for companies in the energy, water and telecoms industries, and has signed up some of the world’s biggest utilities as clients.
In the UK, its platform is licensed to Octopus Energy’s rivals EON and EDF Energy, as well as the water company Severn Trent and broadband provider Cuckoo.
Overseas, Kraken serves Origin Energy in Australia, Japan’s Tokyo Gas and Plentitude in countries including France and Greece.
It is said to be preparing to sign a number of other major contracts in the near term.
In total, it is now contracted to serve more than 54 million customer accounts globally – more than halfway to its target of 100 million by 2027.
Earlier this year, Gavin Patterson, the former BT Group CEO, was appointed as chairman of Kraken, which connects all parts of the energy system, including customer billing and the flexible management of renewable generation and energy devices such as heat pumps and electric vehicle batteries.
The business also unlocks smart grids which enable people to use more renewable energy when there is an abundant supply of it.
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Octopus Energy’s relentless growth since it was established just nine years ago has made Greg Jackson, its founder and chief executive, one of the most influential business figures in Britain.
Mr Jackson has been able to bolster the company’s scale by making acquisitions such as Bulb Energy, which collapsed into temporary government ownership in 2021.
More recently, it struck a deal to buy Shell‘s household energy arm in the UK, which added hundreds of thousands of customers.
Mr Jackson holds a stake in Octopus Energy Group personally, while its other big institutional shareholders include the Canadian pension fund CPPIB.
Octopus Energy declined to comment.