A business energy start-up which allows customers to purchase supplies directly from renewable generators is being sparked into life with a £2.5m funding injection.

Sky News understands that tem., which launched last autumn, has secured the financing in a round led by AlbionVC, the prominent investor in early-stage business-to-business companies.

Tem. uses artificial intelligence to identify matches between business and renewable energy generators, and says it has so far orchestrated more than £10m in energy transactions to date.

The company was set up by a quartet of entrepreneurs in 2021, and is run by Joe McDonald, chief executive.

Its funding round comes at a time of significant controversy in the market for business energy suppliers, with several industries – led by the hospitality sector – complaining about their treatment by mainstream gas and electricity providers in the wake of the pandemic.

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Mr McDonald said that with the support of its new investors, the company was “looking to make a significant, sustainable impact on the energy markets and build a platform for renewable commodity transactions globally, replacing the outdated energy trading companies and helping our customers to reduce their carbon footprint while saving money on their energy bills”.

Revent, a purpose-driven technology fund, has also contributed to the tem round, as well as Christian Deger, an angel investor who founded the payments company Payworks.

Tem. said its end-to-end management of business energy transactions opened up the market to all businesses and claimed it slashed transaction costs as much as tenfold.

It added that there was potential to unlock $1trn in direct renewable energy transactions globally as well as to save 390m tonnes of additional carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 through the faster adoption of renewable generation worldwide.

The company’s founders were previously involved in Limejump, an energy start-up acquired by the oil behemoth Shell in 2019.

Adam Chirkowski, an investment director at AlbionVC, drew a comparison between with the impact of fintech start-ups on industries such as banking, saying tem. had “the opportunity to disrupt one of the largest global markets and ensure renewable generation does not fall into the same antiquated energy system as fossil fuel-driven transactions”.

The valuation at which tem. raised its new funding was unclear.

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