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So, another tech "platform" is being "spun off" for a valuation that sounds like a typo. Fifteen. Billion. Dollars. For something called Kraken. You can’t make this stuff up.
The company is `Kraken`, the software brain behind the UK's biggest power provider, `Octopus Energy`. And now, after years of living in the basement, the nerd is being sent off to its own IPO party, supposedly because it's making so much money licensing its software to other utilities.
Let’s get the official story out of the way first, because it’s a doozy. According to `Octopus Energy CEO` Greg Jackson, the energy company itself—the one that dethroned the 200-year-old British Gas in less than a decade, the one with 7.7 million households in the `Octopus Energy UK` market alone—was just a "demo client."
A demo.
Are you kidding me? A company that big, that disruptive, was basically just a showroom model to prove the software worked? That's the story they're selling. This whole thing is just a cash grab. No, 'cash grab' is too simple. It's a masterclass in Silicon Valley narrative construction, where you retroactively frame your entire history to fit a more profitable ending. It’s like finding out that Amazon was just a demo project for AWS all along. It’s absurd on its face.
And the reason for this sudden corporate mitosis? The company line is that it will "minimize conflicts of interest." Let me translate that for you from PR-speak into English: "It's getting awkward selling our supposedly game-changing software to our direct competitors while also actively trying to crush them in the marketplace." You think?
It’s like Coca-Cola trying to sell its secret formula to Pepsi. "Here’s the code that makes us better than you. That’ll be $500 million a year, please. Don’t worry, we’ll play fair." It was never going to be a sustainable model, and they knew it. The spinoff isn’t about ethics; it's about cashing the check before the other utilities realize they’re funding their own executioner.
The $15 Billion AI Hiding in Your Power Bill
The Shell Game
I spent some time trying to figure out `what is octopus energy` beyond the headlines. They’re genuinely clever, I’ll give them that. They have these creative tariffs, like one called "Agile" that lets people use electricity for free when there's a surplus on the grid. Run your laundry at 2 AM, save a few bucks. It’s a great gimmick. They even have a "Zero Bills" deal for new homes. Sounds fantastic, right?
But all that data, every time someone runs a dishwasher during a wind surge, it all feeds back into the machine. It feeds `Kraken`. That's the real product here. The `Kraken Octopus Energy` platform uses AI to manage all this chaos—billing, meter management, customer service, balancing the grid with renewables and EV chargers and whatever else is plugged in. The energy company, the one with the cute branding and the good `octopus energy reviews` is just the giant, sprawling data farm for the real prize.
It reminds me of my own power company. I called their `octopus energy contact number` equivalent the other day because my bill was incomprehensible. It's just a list of random charges and fees that change every month. The person on the phone couldn’t explain it. They just kept saying "it's the system." Well, Kraken is the system. And it’s a system designed from the ground up not just to bill you, but to learn from you. Every single kilowatt. And now that system is worth $15 billion.
Of course the real story here is the inevitable endpoint of all successful tech companies: assimilation into the halls of power.
The Fox Is Officially Guarding the Henhouse
And Then Comes The Government Job
Just as this whole spinoff bonanza is hitting the news, where does CEO Greg Jackson pop up? As a new Non-Executive Member of the UK's Cabinet Office Board. A three-year term, starting right now.
The stated goal is to "integrate renewable energy insight into governmental policy-making." That’s the nice way of putting it. The real way of putting it is that the guy who runs the biggest energy company, which itself was just a "demo" for a multi-billion-dollar tech platform, now has a direct line to the people who write the rules for the entire energy market.
This ain't a conspiracy. It’s just business. It’s the logical conclusion. You build a disruptive company, you scale it to the moon, you get a seat at the table to make sure the regulations fall your way. It’s the most predictable story in modern capitalism, and we're all just supposed to nod along and—
Then again, maybe I’m the crazy one. Maybe having a guy who actually built something successful in the modern energy landscape advise a government that seems perpetually stuck in 1985 is a good thing. Maybe it’s not a soft-coup by big tech but a genuine attempt to fix a broken system.
Yeah, I don’t believe it either.
The `Octopus Energy Group` is now playing on a whole new level. They're in the US now, with operations in places like `Octopus Energy Texas` and `Octopus Energy Houston`, selling solar buyback programs and trying to crack the most chaotic energy market on the planet. With Kraken as a separate entity, they can sell the software to their American competitors, too. All while their CEO whispers advice into the ears of the government back home.
It’s a beautiful, terrifying, vertically and horizontally integrated machine. And it was all built on the back of a "demo client." What a world.
So We're Just Calling It 'Innovation' Now?
Let's be real. This isn't some magical tech story. It's a perfectly executed financial maneuver. They built a Trojan horse, called it an energy company, and used it to sneak a hyper-valuable software platform past everyone. Now they’re selling the platform, keeping the horse, and getting a seat in the king’s court for their trouble. Don't call it a revolution. Call it what it is: the house always wins.
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