South African electrotech company Plentify, that uses AI-fueled hardware and software to connect home appliances to cheaper, cleaner energy, has raised an oversubscribed Series A funding round, bringing its total capital raised to date to nearly $15-million.
The round was led by Secha Capital, Buffet Investments, and a South African family office, with participation from existing investors E3 Capital and Fireball Capital, and new backers Endeavor South Africa’s Harvest Fund and Satgana.
“This round reflects both the confidence of our long-term supporters and the belief of new partners who share our vision,” says Jon Kornik, CEO and co-founder of Plentify. “It’s validation that what we’ve built in South Africa has global relevance and that our approach to intelligent energy management is resonating with investors around the world.”
According to Kailas Nair, Plentify’s chief growth officer and co-founder, South Africa is the ideal testing ground for scalable, subsidy-free innovation. “Chronic load-shedding and rising electricity tariffs created a rooftop-solar boom among middle-income households, at penetration levels similar to advanced markets, but without subsidies or feed-in tariffs.
“That forced us to make load management work from day one. Now, as other markets reduce or remove solar subsidies, we have the technology and know-how to help them do the same.”
Brendan Mullen, MD of Secha Capital, comments: “The future of energy isn’t far away, Plentify just sees it first. In a sector often filled with moonshots, they’re solving a practical, immediate problem: making the energy we already produce work smarter.”
By connecting appliances like water heaters, batteries and solar inverters, Plentify’s technology enables them to draw power when it’s cheapest and cleanest, helping households across South Africa cut costs, strengthen the grid, and maximise the value of renewable energy.
Plentify’s AI-powered home-energy management system is already being deployed by partners including:
- Balwin Properties, improving solar yield and delivering cheaper, cleaner power to residents;
- Conlog, South Africa’s largest metering company, which uses Plentify’s load-management solution to help municipalities cut costs and improve service delivery; and
- Wetility, a solar technology company integrating Plentify’s platform to deliver top-performing residential solar systems.
Together these deployments form what Kornik calls “a massive virtual power plant, with close to 100 MWh of water heaters and batteries under management.” To date, this smart network has saved 9,9 GWh of electricity and helped South African households save more than R40-million on their energy bills.