NOX Energy raises 3 million euros to sell home heat pump flexibility through power suppliers

Energy suppliers pay penalties when their portfolios fall out of balance ^[3]. Axelle Moortgat, NOX's chief executive ^[20], learned what that means for a startup with her previous idea: a platform that let Belgian households sell surplus solar power to their neighbours. Suppliers did not like it, she told Forbes Belgium ^[3]. A heat pump can pre-heat a house when power is cheap and wait when it is scarce ^[8], so it is useful to the supplier carrying the imbalance risk. NOX plugs into the manufacturer's or supplier's app, decides when the pump runs and forecasts its consumption for the next 24 hours ^[9]. Wind and solar produced 30% of EU electricity in 2025, ahead of fossil fuels at 29%, according to Ember, and that supply is harder to predict ^[18].

Moortgat describes the goal as a network. "Every time money moves between two banks, it runs over SWIFT. We want to be that for energy flexibility," she said ^[5]. "Our goal is for every kilowatt-hour of flexibility in Europe to run through NOX," Moortgat said ^[6].

The comparison sets its own test, since by her account every payment between two banks runs over SWIFT ^[5]. By that test NOX is early. It says it has connected more than 10,000 devices ^[4]. London's Axle Energy says it manages more than 300,000, representing over two gigawatts of flexible capacity ^[11], or 30 times NOX's count ^[1]. Axle also sells to suppliers and manufacturers through software interfaces, and Tech Funding News concludes that NOX's clearest difference is its focus on heat pumps and supplier apps in Belgium and the Netherlands ^[14].

The supplier-side case can resolve in more than one direction. If suppliers remain the main buyer, the layer probably consolidates toward whoever connects the most devices, and Axle leads on that count ^[1]. If the money sits with whoever holds the balancing position, the licensed-supplier route wins. Berlin's Nomos raised 20 million euros from Index Ventures in September 2026 to connect home batteries, electric vehicles and heat pumps to Germany's power market as a licensed supplier behind installers' brands ^[12]. If manufacturers set the terms of access, software that runs inside their apps, NIBE's myUplink among them ^[10], collects whatever share they allow.

The funding record shows investors backing several routes at once. Nomos's round is about 6.7 times NOX's seed ^[2]. In Germany, 1KOMMA5 extended a 150 million euro pre-IPO round in July 2025 and plans to put more than 100 million euros into software between 2025 and 2027 ^[13]. Closer to NOX, Antwerp's LIFEPOWR raised 5.65 million euros in November 2025 and manages more than 22,000 connected assets ^[15].

NOX has taken the lighter position. It stays inside partners' apps ^[12] and promises households savings with no extra hardware ^[7]. That keeps costs down for a team of 13 ^[19] funded by a 3 million euro round ^[1]. It also means NOX is paid from a pool that grid operators fund and that it shares with manufacturers and households ^[7]. Households are promised up to 200 euros a year ^[7]. If each of the 10,000 devices earned that ceiling, the payout would total 2 million euros a year ^[4]. The company did not disclose revenue or the share it keeps.

In December 2024 NOX told VLAIO, the Flemish innovation agency, that it wanted to be worth 100 million euros within five years ^[16]. That is about 25 times the close to 4 million euros it has now disclosed raising ^[17][3]. I think the supplier is the right buyer, because the imbalance penalty gives it a reason to pay ^[3]. The neutral layer Moortgat describes depends on scale, though, and NOX has a thirtieth of the leader's devices ^[1]. The view is wrong if NOX's device count in Belgium and the Netherlands closes on Axle's faster than Axle's 25 million dollar Series A can widen the gap ^[11].