Energy retail upstart Amber gains new funds and customer base in CBA deal

Innovative electricity retailer Amber has completed a successful $20 million series B investment round through a major new partnership with the Commonwealth Bank.

The Commonwealth Bank led the investment round and has also been able to secure a partnership with Amber to offer its energy products to the bank’s substantial customer base.

Amber offers its customers direct access to wholesale electricity prices, allowing customers the opportunity to adjust their consumption in response to wholesale electricity price spikes and the share of renewable electricity supplying the grid. It provides customers with the potential to purchase both lower cost and lower emissions electricity.

Amber’s customers access the electricity services via a fixed monthly subscription, with the company making no money through the sale of electricity directly.

While most electricity retailers offer fixed prices for electricity consumption, Amber says that by providing customers access to live wholesale electricity prices, customers have a greater ability to manage their consumption accordingly and can therefore prioritise electricity use in times when prices are low.

Amber said the major investment from the Commonwealth Bank would allow the retailer to fund a significant expansion push, growing its customer base.

In addition to the investment being provided by the Commonwealth Bank, customers of the bank are also set to be offered Amber’s energy products through its existing customer relationships, including the offer of discounted electricity services.

Amber said the partnership would also extend to collaborating with the Commonwealth Bank to provide low-cost finance to customers to purchase and install residential battery systems and electric vehicle charging devices.

Amber’s co-CEO and co-founder Dan Adams said the partnership would help the company achieve a goal of growing to more than 100,000 customers by 2022.

“Amber’s partnership with CBA is a big step towards our goal of helping a million customers save money while shifting Australia to 100% renewables,” Adams said. “CBA’s investment in Amber means we can accelerate our business to reach more people sooner and fast-track Australia’s renewable transition.”

“In order to move to a future powered by renewables, we need to give people an incentive and the technology to use cheaper renewable power when it is available.”

“With a million Amber customers we could shift enough demand to replace an entire coal fired power station with wind and solar farms.”

Commonwealth Bank group executive Angus Sullivan said the bank would look to incorporate Amber into its product offering to its own customers, and the provision of low cost loans for clean energy equipment would build on its ‘green home loans’.

“In line with our strategy, we recognise the important role we play in supporting Australia’s transition to a low carbon economy,” Sullivan said.

“Through this partnership with Amber we will help our customers see how their energy costs are calculated, help them save money on their energy bills and help them use renewable sources of power.”

“Our partnership with Amber follows the recent announcement of the new CommBank Green Loan, which will make it easier for CBA home loan customers to purchase and install clean energy products for their home,” Sullivan added.

The $20 million Series B investment round follows an earlier $10 million Series A funding round completed by Amber and was backed by venture capital firms Main Sequence and Square Peg, and included Giant Leap and other angel investors.