Open Access Energy(OAE), a South African startup leveraging AI to enable digital infrastructure for electricity trading, has closed a $1.8 million seed funding round. The raise saw participation from E3 Capital, Equator, and Factor E Ventures, and will accelerate product development and customer growth as the company scales to meet the rising demand for flexible, decentralised energy infrastructure.

Andrew Darge, Investment Manager at E3 Capital, said:
“Open Access Energy has built a software-led solution for a real-world problem – enabling renewables to flow through existing infrastructure. The opportunity for digital technology to support municipal wheeling, embedded generation, and transparent settlement at scale is exactly what Africa’s power sector needs to drive the transition to lower carbon economies.”

Gerjo Hoffman, CEO of Open Access Energy, added:
“Private generation is central to South Africa’s energy transition. 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. We are proud to have the support of leading investors who understand the opportunity and are committed to building long-term impact.”

OAE’s flagship product, EnergyPro, is a cloud-based software platform that enables energy wheeling – the process of delivering electricity from decentralised renewable producers to distributed consumers via existing transmission infrastructure.

Open Access Energy has been on a mission to unlock Africa’s energy potential by making renewable power more accessible, transparent, and scalable driving meaningful progress toward a sustainable energy future.