The end of regulated energy tariffs in France has boosted the business of energy broker Opéra Énergie. It was the ideal time for both BPI and Oraxys to take a stake in the company. Photo: Shutterstock

The end of regulated energy tariffs in France has boosted the business of energy broker Opéra Énergie. It was the ideal time for both BPI and Oraxys to take a stake in the company. Photo: Shutterstock

Together with France’s Banque Publique d’Investissement, Luxembourg’s Oraxys has taken a minority stake in a Lyon-based company that has energy to sell: Opéra Énergie. The energy broker for businesses is riding the wave of the end of regulated tariffs and rising energy prices.

Opéra Énergie has energy to spare. And at a moment when bills are soaring and it’s easier to change suppliers, the timing is perfect: businesses, as well as individuals, are trying to cut their costs.

That’s where the French broker Opéra Énergie comes in. More than 13,000 businesses, homeowners’ associations and public bodies have entrusted it with the task of finding new suppliers from the range of 30 energy providers it has managed to convince--including Enovos Luxembourg, considered to be “a historic supplier” in the French success story.

The recent disappearance of regulated tariffs for the sale of natural gas and electricity (on 1 December 2020 for professionals and on 1 July 2023 for homeowners’ associations for gas and at the end of 2020 for electricity) has affected 179,000 consumption sites for natural gas and 435,000 sites for electricity.

On Thursday 14 September, a minority stake was acquired by the Luxembourg private equity fund Oraxys and BPI, France’s public investment bank. The stake had been acquired back in 2017 by Odyssée Venture for €1m. Sales--at €1.5m in 2016--“have increased 16-fold,” says the press release. The French company, which has been awarded the “French Tech” (2017), “Pépite” (2019) and “Scale Up Excellence” (2021) labels, relies on a technology platform developed in-house.

Focus on the green transition

“Opéra Énergie’s positioning is perfectly in line with the investment strategy of the Oraxys Environment 2 fund, which aims to develop companies in Europe, among others, with competitive advantages based on certain ESG KPIs. We are convinced that the digital knowhow, energy skills and proximity of the Opéra Énergie teams to their customers will enable them to become a key player in the energy transition in Europe,” commented Michel Crochon, one of the partners in the Oraxys industrial team.

The three original founders, Jean-Sébastien Degouve, Nicolas Chevallier and Julien Teddé, will retain a majority stake. The investment by Oraxys and Bpifrance aims to speed up the expansion of the group’s activities (140 people) into energy transition businesses, with the goal of generating at least 25% of its sales in these new businesses by 2028, and into other European countries.

As with another investment announced a year ago by the Oraxys Environment 2 fund (in the door and window supplier Wako), the amount of the transaction was not disclosed.

This article was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.

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