Open Access Energy, a Cape Town-based software developer, has secured R32 million in seed funding to scale its AI-powered electricity wheeling platform. The funding round included investments from E3 Capital, Equator VC and Factor E Ventures.
The start-up claims to have developed the first electricity trading platform of its kind in South Africa. It was founded in 2021 following amendments to Schedule 2 of South Africa’s Electricity Regulation Act, which raised the licensing threshold for private generation projects from 1 MW to 100 MW.
The latest investment follows an earlier tranche of R13,5 million secured from Factor E Ventures in 2024 as part of the same seed round.
The company’s cloud-based platform, EnergyPro, automates the matching of generation and consumption loads in real time using AI, enabling private generators and traders to execute wheeling transactions through existing infrastructure. The system integrates backend processes including metering, forecasting and risk management.
“Private generation is central to South Africa’s energy transition,” says Gerjo Hoffman, CEO of Open Access Energy. “This funding allows us to scale the tools that independent power producers and energy traders need to participate in and benefit from the liberalised energy market.”
