Bulb Energy

Bulb Energy Ltd., trading as Bulb, is a privately financed energy supply company operating in the United Kingdom, Texas, Spain, and France.[1] Bulb is based in London. Bulb began trading in August 2015, buying and selling electricity and gas to supply domestic properties. It is one of over 70 smaller energy companies competing with the "Big Six energy suppliers" which dominate the UK market. Bulb competes on price, offering a single variable tariff. It supplies 100% renewable electricity and 100% carbon neutral gas. Attracting venture capital, Bulb runs at a financial loss while achieving rapid growth in customers.

Bulb Energy
Bulb
TypePrivate
IndustryEnergy supply
PredecessorsRegent Power Ltd., Hanbury Energy Ltd.
FoundedApril 2013, United Kingdom
FoundersAmit Gudka, Hayden Wood
Headquarters
London
Number of employees
550+ (2020)
ParentSimple Energy
Websitehttps://bulb.co.uk; https://bulb.com

As of March 2020 Bulb has over 1.5 million customers, representing a 5% domestic market share.[2]

Company history

Founding

Bulb Energy Ltd. was incorporated in April 2013 under the name Regent Power Ltd., and was known as Hanbury Energy Ltd. between June and October 2015.[3] Its parent company is Simple Energy.[4] The company began to trade energy in August 2015. Since it began trading, the directors have been Amit Gudka, a former energy market trader for Barclays, and Hayden Wood, a former management consultant.[5]

Finance capital

Initial funding came from the founders' savings and from their personal contacts. Backing was then obtained from JamJar Investments.[6] In August 2018 a further £60 million funding was secured from two backers: DST Global (owned by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner), and US hedge fund Magnetar Capital.[4][7] The value of the company is thought to be between £400M and £500M.[4]

Growth

Growth has been rapid since the start of 2017, and by early March 2019 the company had over 1 million customers and was employing over 550 staff.[4] Its headquarters moved in February 2019 from offices at Hanbury Street, Shoreditch to Bishopsgate in the City of London.[3]

Growth in number of Bulb's customers
DateCustomers
(approx.)		Source
January 201715,000[4]
August 2017100,000[8]
January 2018200,000
300,000		[9]
[8]
August 2018670,000[4]
January 2019870,000[9]
March 20191,130,000[10]
October 20191,500,000[11]

As of 2018, Bulb is the UK's largest renewable energy supplier, and the UK's seventh largest energy supplier, smaller only than the "Big Six".[12] It is the only company to achieve this growth without taking over other companies, as rival companies have done.[13] SyndicateRoom identified Bulb as the UK's fastest-growing private company of 2018.[14]

Current operations

In the year 2018-2019, Bulb's renewable electricity was generated as follows: 73% from wind power, 24% from solar power and 3% from hydroelectricity. Bulb's carbon-neutral gas was composed of 10% biogas and 90% carbon offset.[15]

In addition to domestic households, Bulb also supplies energy to businesses.[16]

Bulb announced in June 2019 that they were expanding to France, Spain and Texas.[17]

In September 2020, Bulb announced that they were increasing their prices by 5.3% in response to increasing wholesale energy costs. [18]

Regulatory action

In August 2020, Bulb agreed to pay £1.76 million in redress, refunds and goodwill payments after industry regulator Ofgem found 11,400 customers had been overcharged, together with other mistakes (some self-reported by Bulb).[19]

References
  1. "Bulb is expanding internationally | Blog | Bulb". bulb.co.uk. 6 June 2019. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
  2. "Electricity supply market shares by company: Domestic (GB)". Ofgem. 23 June 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  3. "BULB ENERGY LTD - Overview (free company information from Companies House)". beta.companieshouse.gov.uk. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  4. "Tech firms Bulb Energy and Monzo bag £200 million in funding". Evening Standard. 17 August 2018.
  5. "Bulb switches on revenue growth but losses spiral". Business Matters. 19 December 2018.
  6. "Tech firm crowned UK's fastest-growing company". BusinessCloud.co.uk. 11 December 2018.
  7. Havelock, Laurie (27 December 2018). "Bulb energy company targets one million customers as it takes on the 'big six'". i News.
  8. "Challenger to Watch: Bulb Energy". The Challenger Project. 26 January 2018.
  9. Vaughan, Adam (14 January 2019). "SSE hits out after Bulb claims big energy firms are squeezing families". The Guardian.
  10. "BULB ENERGY LTD - Filing history (free information from Companies House)". beta.companieshouse.gov.uk. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  11. "Ofgem electricity supply market share".
  12. Ross, Kelvin (1 October 2018). "Bulb Energy named in top startups list". Power Engineering International.
  13. Vaughan, Adam (26 January 2019). "Small energy suppliers get a growth boost as their rivals collapse". The Observer.
  14. "What you need to know about Bulb, the fastest growing UK tech company". Evening Standard. 10 December 2018. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  15. "Bulb - Making energy simpler, cheaper, greener". Join Bulb - Making energy simpler, cheaper, greener. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  16. "Bulb - Making energy simpler, cheaper, greener". Join Bulb - Making energy simpler, cheaper, greener. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  17. "Bulb is expanding internationally | Blog | Bulb". bulb.co.uk. 6 June 2019. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  18. "Energy price watch: we're changing our prices | Blog | Bulb". bulb.co.uk. 14 September 2020. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  19. Bradley, Jane (13 August 2020). "Energy firm pays out £1.76m after failing 61,000 customers". The Scotsman. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
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