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The entrepreneur behind Britain’s biggest energy supplier is sitting on a fortune worth £300m following the blockbuster sale of its technology arm.
Greg Jackson, who co-founded Octopus Energy in 2015, secured the fortune after he confirmed late on Monday that the company’s Kraken software arm had been spun off as an independent business valued at $8.7bn (£6.4bn).
His stake in the remaining Octopus Energy group is also thought to be worth hundreds of millions of pounds, although its latest value has not been disclosed.
A mix of new and old backers will pay $1bn for shares in Kraken as part of the deal.
Among the new investors is D1 Capital Partners – an American investment fund that was an early backer of Elon Musk’s SpaceX – as well as payments giant Stripe and ChatGPT owner OpenAI.
Some 11,000 Octopus employees – who all own shares – will benefit from the sale of Kraken, including fellow co-founders Stuart Jackson and James Eddison.
Speaking after the announcement, Greg Jackson said he had turned down an “eight-digit” performance pay offer to quit his previous job and start Octopus a decade ago.
He said: “I walked away from an offer of stock options there because I really believed in the opportunity we had here, so I’m delighted about that.”
The 54-year-old has previously described how his family at times struggled to pay their energy bills, occasionally leading to their heating being cut off.
Mr Jackson, who left school aged 16 to write and sell his own video games, founded Octopus with the goal of using technology to drive down energy bills.
He has since built it into a sprawling business that provides gas and electricity to more than 7.8 million households. Earlier this year, it overtook British Gas to become Britain’s biggest energy supplier.
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The company also leases electric vehicles, installs solar panels and heat pumps and has licensed Kraken to several other utility providers.
Around $850m of the $1bn raised from the Kraken sale will be pumped back into Octopus.
On top of this, the energy supplier’s existing investors are putting in another $320m. Mr Jackson said the combined $1.2bn in funds would be used as a “war chest” for continued expansion.
Octopus Energy’s backers include London-based Octopus Capital – its first investor – along with Australia’s Origin Energy, Japan’s Tokyo Gas, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and former US vice-president Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management.
As investors in Kraken, they have now been joined by D1 Capital Partners, Fidelity International, Durable Capital Partners and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, among others.
The Kraken software platform was originally developed as an in-house platform at Octopus to manage customer service and billing. It is now used by other UK energy suppliers, water companies and telecoms providers as well.
Overseas, Kraken has been licensed to other companies in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North America.
Following Kraken’s separation, there is now mounting speculation that the company will consider a highly-anticipated stock market listing – potentially within the next two years.
Ministers have been urging British technology firms to list domestically as the London Stock Exchange has dealt with a growing number of companies delisting or choosing foreign exchanges.
Amir Orad, Kraken’s chief executive, said it was too early to discuss a listing at this stage. However, he added: “When we get to that point, I think there’ll be only two realistic locations, New York and London.
“Each one has its pros and cons. The origin of the company in the UK creates attraction and relevance to the UK.
“The sophistication of the tech scene in the US stock market creates attraction. In due time, we’ll have to make the best decision for the shareholders. It’s premature right now.”
Separately on Tuesday, Octopus posted annual results showing that underlying profits plunged from £290m to just £90m in the year to May.
Octopus blamed the drop primarily on £144m of one-off costs related to its takeover of rival supplier Bulb, which involved a loan and profit-sharing agreement with the Government, and unexpected settlements related to the “energy price guarantee” support scheme.
The company said 2025 had also seen “the warmest spring on record”, leading to lower demand for energy.
Sales rose from £12.4bn to £13.6bn, with the number of customers supplied by the company globally rising from about eight million to 9.9 million.
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