The app helped homeowners optimise their battery storage and capitalise on new, agile energy tariffs. It aimed to reduce bills, balance the grid, and drive solar and battery adoption in more UK homes.

Last year, Glowb raised £1.8 million from four funds and seven angels in an 80% oversubscribed pre-seed funding round. The company embarked on a mission to become a trusted solar brand in the sector, simplifying home decarbonisation with a comprehensive service that included in-house installation, financing, and software.

Glowb was co-founded in 2022 by Sarah Chapman, who previously founded and sold Brazilian commercial solar company Faro Energy. She began her career in clean tech strategy at McKinsey & Co, working in carbon markets and on international climate policy. Her co-founder, Colin Fraser, served as CEO of the UK banking operations of FCMB Group.

Glowb’s app, powered by AI technology from Zoa – the software platform for home energy management – marked Zoa’s first UK partnership with a solar company. Together, they tackled a pressing issue in the sector: the lack of smart, manufacturer-agnostic technology to help consumers maximise their renewable energy systems and unlock savings.

Previously, customers had to manually charge and discharge their home batteries to benefit from variable energy prices – a time-consuming process involving considerable guesswork. Glowb’s app used AI to automatically manage battery charging and discharging based on energy price fluctuations, weather, and home usage patterns, making decisions every five minutes. The Glowb app was free and available to all Glowb customers across iOS, Android, and web. It was set to be rolled out to all solar adopters in summer 2024.

State of the market

The market size of the UK solar panel installation industry measured by revenue, was £1.2 billion in 2023, up 35% on the previous year and average annual growth between 2018 and 2023 was 15.1%. MCS, the industry’s accreditation body, reported that 2023 was a record-breaking year for small-scale renewable certified installations. It estimates that around 1.3 million UK homes (4.1%) have solar panels installed.

But the domestic battery market trails behind the solar market as the majority of panels were installed before batteries made economic sense. However, with prices falling and quality increasing, this market is now growing rapidly: 95% of Glowb’s new solar installations now include batteries, while 10% of their installations are now battery-only.

Meanwhile, the experience of making the transition to solar in the UK is often highly inconsistent in terms of customer service and quality. The market is also hampered by a lack of smart, joined-up technology, pervasive mis-selling, limited finance options – all problems that Glowb solves.

Sarah Chapman, CEO and co-founder of Glowb, comments: “Our new app is a game-changer: it makes home batteries make sense for existing solar households and new ones alike. This technology will drive the growth of a whole new home battery market.

“As energy prices have risen, we’ve seen the cost of solar panels fall by 39% and batteries by 50% since January 2022, while the quality of components continues to improve. It’s now possible to get a tariff that varies every 30 minutes depending on what’s actually happening in the energy market and, meanwhile, solar is still zero rated for VAT. But to take full advantage of this opportunity, consumers need home batteries and they need to be properly optimised.

“Our partnership with Zoa brings AI battery optimisation to the party, plugging a genuine problem no one has yet solved. Bill payers can now make the most of new agile tariffs and play the market to their financial gain which will incentivise more people to consider solar, unleash the market’s true potential, and give existing users a better all-round experience too.

“There’s a clear overlap between Zoa's approach and ours. We both agree things need to be designed brilliantly to get people to change behaviours, and that slick customer experiences help create new habits. This app delivers an experience that will drive mass adoption and utility.”

Sara Brooks, co-CEO of Zoa, comments: "Our partnership with Glowb is set to revolutionise home energy management. The biggest limitations to scaling electrification across households today is accessibility – making electrification affordable and easy to adopt. With Glowb’s flexible payment options and Zoa’s intelligent technology, the experience of managing an electrified home is easy and simple.

“Thanks to our collaboration, Glowb is now able to fully utilise each solar panel and battery system to maximise consumer savings. Our AI-driven technology enables real-time, intelligent decision-making that adjusts battery usage based on solar predictions, energy consumption, and tariff costs. This approach not only boosts savings but also helps Glowb build stronger customer relationships by delivering more value to their users. We are proud to support Glowb in our shared mission to accelerate the adoption of electrification."

Check Warner, co-founding partner at Ada Ventures (lead investor in Glowb), comments: “Glowb is now offering its customers something genuinely new to the market, that will deliver material consumer savings and transform people's relationship with their home energy. This technology will accelerate consumer adoption of solar and batteries, position Glowb as a market leader, and deliver significant benefit to the grid.”