Octopus Energy has acquired BD Energy, a Danish startup whose algorithms buy and sell electricity almost entirely without human traders, as the British group looks to deepen the technology behind its power trading operation.

The deal, announced on Tuesday, brings the Aarhus-based company into Octopus Energy Trading, the division of Octopus Energy Group that buys and sells electricity and helps manage the changing supply of renewable power. The transaction takes effect immediately, with BD Energy’s founding team, leadership and staff continuing to operate from Denmark.

Founded in 2022, BD Energy concentrates exclusively on short-term power markets, the window running from 24 hours ahead of delivery down to the moment electricity flows into the grid. Its platform crunches large volumes of data, from electricity prices and supply and demand to weather forecasts, and uses machine learning to spot opportunities and make trades automatically. Around 99 per cent of its trades are algorithmic.

That approach has carried the 31-person company a long way in four years. Since launching in Denmark it has grown rapidly and now operates across 25 electricity pricing zones in 15 countries, including Germany, the Netherlands and the United States.

Under its new owner, BD Energy will draw on Octopus’s capital and technology to increase the amount of electricity it trades and expand into new markets around the world.

Frederik Vinkler, co-founder of BD Energy, said the business was built on the idea that technology should be the core of an energy trading company rather than an accessory to it. “We founded BD Energy with the ambition of building a new generation of energy trading company, one where technology is the foundation of the business, rather than simply a tool used by traders,” he said.

“What made Octopus the ideal partner for us was our shared green mindset, coupled with their entrepreneurial culture and scale. With Octopus’s backing, we can deploy our proprietary algorithms across larger volumes and bring our automated trading infrastructure to new markets worldwide.”

Matt Bunney, managing director at Octopus Energy Trading, said: “What BD Energy has achieved in just a few years is remarkable. By bringing their tech under the Octopus Energy Trading umbrella, we’re combining two highly entrepreneurial, tech-first teams.

“Their capabilities in short-term markets will significantly boost our power trading infrastructure and supercharge how we optimise flexibility in key markets worldwide.”

The purchase is the latest in a series of technology-led moves by the London-based group, which was named Britain’s Most Admired Company in 2025, the youngest business ever to take the title. Octopus recently spun out its Kraken software arm as an independent company at an $8.65 billion valuation, and its trading business has been expanding overseas, including through a joint venture to trade renewable electricity in China’s spot power markets that aims to handle 140 TWh a year by 2030.

For Octopus Energy Trading, the appeal of BD Energy lies in those final hours before delivery, where the output of wind and solar can shift quickly and trading decisions have to be made at speed. Bunney said the Danish team’s short-term capabilities would strengthen how the group optimises flexibility in its key markets, while Vinkler pointed to the scale Octopus brings as the platform moves into larger volumes and new territories.

Read the full article →