How Aalto Energia is building a modern energy company through plug-and-play digital tools

About Aalto Energia

Aalto Energia is a new Finnish energy company focused on delivering clean and affordable energy to consumers. Their story began in the spring of 2023 when entrepreneurs Mika Vainio-Mattila and Jukka Järvinen decided to set up a new electricity sales company. 

The company was founded to help reform the Finnish electricity market by giving consumers more ownership over their energy matters and delivering affordable energy contracts to improve the customer experience. Central to Aalto Energia's brand promise is to provide friendly and efficient customer service, competitive pricing, and innovative digital solutions.

Aalto Energia represents a new way of thinking and marketing energy products, as differentiation in the electricity market requires new and innovative ways in which electricity products are packaged for consumers. 

The challenge  

One of the most significant challenges in the energy retail business is customer retention, as consumers are constantly bombarded with complex offers, and they bounce between providers. To address this, Aalto Energia’s focus was to develop a straightforward, easy-to-understand product offering backed by exceptional customer service to ensure clarity and trust. 

However, since consumer needs go beyond just energy contracts, it was also important to complement the user experience with value-added services. This was especially important because Aalto Energia wants to retain customers beyond just price.

And, since an increasing amount of consumers nowadays have devices (electric vehicles or heat pumps)  at home they want to control according to real-time electricity prices,  it was clear they had to develop a digital offering to give customers more control over energy use and raise awareness of the impact of individual energy choices on the environment.

The solution 

As a new player in the industry with limited technical resources to build complex digital infrastructure in-house, Aalto Energia had to look for a partner who would match its level of ambition and energy to help deliver energy optimization tools for its customers quickly. Synergi was found as a solution through personal connections. 

Synergi’s energy flexibility platform was selected to provide Aalto Energia’s customers with the Synergi app that helps optimize energy use according to the cheapest and greenest hours of the day.

According to Mika Vainio-Mattila, Synergi’s “plug & play” offering and ambitious roadmap allow them to focus on marketing and productization of Aalto Energia’s products rather than maintaining API connections to home energy assets.

Moreover, since Synergi will offer access to European flexibility markets, this is extremely attractive to Aalto Energia, who could generate new revenue streams for its business while incentivizing its users to use energy responsibly.

The results 

• Energy savings for customers 

Within the first 24 hours of launching, around 10% of Aalto Energia’s customers had downloaded the app, showcasing that interest in these products is significant. Now, Aalto Energia’s customers with spot price contracts and energy assets like EVs and heat pumps can achieve savings of up to 50% on EV charging and 20% on heating costs. 

• Customer insights 

Aalto Energia now has a more comprehensive overview of its customers' devices and brands, which opens some avenues for them. For instance, knowing what devices customers have at home allows for more targeted and personalized marketing. Knowing what hardware brands most customers prefer allows them to build partnerships with the right players to benefit customers with exclusive promotions. 

• Lower total cost of ownership & faster go-to-market

Aalto Energia has deployed a digital product for a fraction of the cost of building this solution in-house and launching it faster. A complex application with sophisticated UI/UX and real-time features ranges from 400,000€ upwards with an average time of over 12 months to go live. With Synergi, Aalto Energia is saving  ~90% off the upfront costs of building in-house, and the launch can happen in less than a month. 

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