Founder of the month: RAZO Energy

The actual spark came during a trip to Praia de Razo in northern Spain (Galicia)—hence our name. We asked ourselves: Why not use the countless small batteries in electric cars to drive forward the energy transition? Cars are unused for an average of 23 out of 24 hours, and daily journeys are usually less than 100 kilometers. This means that the battery storage capacity of an electric car remains largely unused. With currently around 50 million cars in Germany alone and 250 million in Europe (all of which will eventually be electric), there is huge untapped potential here for storing renewable energy, stabilizing the power grid, and reducing immense grid expansion costs. In practice and in discussions with end customers, however, we quickly realized that there are still many fundamental hurdles to local optimization. Our conclusion: Before secondary use cases for assets such as electric cars (e.g., grid serviceability) can be addressed, the primary use case must first function smoothly. Specifically, this means that the electric car is intelligently charged with surplus PV, dynamic electricity tariffs and home storage are taken into account – and all of this is completely automated, without the user having to intervene on a daily basis.

Willy and Max had the original idea and together laid an important foundation for RAZO Energy. When it became clear that we needed more tech support, we got in touch with Kai. He was immediately enthusiastic about the project – even though he was traveling through Southeast Asia at the time.

The full implementation of the idea then began thanks to EXIST start-up funding, with Prof. Hagenmeyer providing us with active support as a mentor. Once the EXIST funding period had expired, it was time to found the GmbH.

Our “why” is clearly formulated: Make good tech for a cleaner earth. We want to solve real, pressing problems in the world with intelligent software.

The “how” looks like this: We harness the flexibility of end devices such as electric cars, heat pumps, and battery storage systems to make better and more efficient use of renewable energies. The aim is to adapt our flexible electricity consumption to the often inflexible generation (sun, wind). Our vision is to drastically reduce the immense grid expansion costs required for the transition from the fossil fuel era to a green energy world—by intelligently utilizing existing devices for multiple purposes.

One major challenge was finding a compatible way of working and communicating, especially since we do a lot of remote work. You have to learn to take matters into your own hands, even if you don’t know how to do something yet.

One of our most important lessons was: “Just because you have a good product doesn’t mean people will snap it up.” Since we are a very tech-heavy team, we first had to get used to doing a lot more sales ourselves and daring to go out there and be aggressive in our marketing.

Above all, there is now significantly more accounting and bureaucracy – “yeah”! Annual financial statements, legal requirements, balance sheets, and endless documentation are now part of everyday life. But joking aside, the formal founding was the right entrepreneurial starting signal. Knowing that everything is settled gives us security. It was also the perfect opportunity to clarify the distribution of roles internally. Externally, our visibility and perception have improved significantly. In addition, eligibility for many exciting programs is often linked to the establishment of a corporation.

We started out in the traditional way with bootstrapping and landed our first orders. In addition, funding projects and research programs are useful for driving our product development forward. Investor funds are only something we will consider in the future.

We have indeed felt the effects of the crises, but in our sector they have tended to act as an accelerator. The extreme rise in electricity prices as a result of the war in Ukraine has led to a huge increase in the desire for energy independence. Many more solar systems have been purchased and interest in dynamic electricity tariffs – and thus also in our optimization software solution – has risen sharply.

We plan to tackle projects outside our previous Energy Management System Bubble (EMS). These include, for example, procurement optimization and a VPP (Virtual Power Plant) research project in collaboration with energy suppliers and municipal utilities. At the same time, scaling our own server infrastructure and further exciting feature improvements for our EMS construction kit are at the top of our agenda.

• Being comfortable in being uncomfortable: You have to be willing to constantly venture into completely unknown territory and learn not to feel uncomfortable doing so.
• “You build it, you own it”: Especially in the beginning—and particularly if you’re more introverted or a pure techie—you have to push yourself and convince yourself. You have to go out, present your solution, talk to people, and actively gather feedback. Building the wrong product is known to be a very expensive startup mistake.
• “Be a flexible stubborn person”: You need a certain amount of stubborn conviction to believe in your own idea. At the same time, however, you have to be flexible enough to change course immediately if your assumptions turn out to be wrong.

Continue to lead a normal life! There’s no point in working yourself to the bone. Nurture your friendships, take time off, and look after your health.

And don’t let your head hang down, even when it rains or hails in everyday startup life.