That has attracted the attention of several major investors since Origin struck the $507 million deal for its original investment in May last year.
“With continued strong growth in its own customer base and the licensing of its Kraken technology to leading retailers around the world, it is unsurprising that Octopus is attracting the attention of major global investors,” said Origin chief executive Frank Calabria.
“CPPI is one of the world’s largest public pension funds and its investment in Octopus will provide further support to execute its strategy and accelerate investment in global growth, as the company targets 100 million customer accounts on Kraken by 2027.”
Octopus said the CPPI deal would see the Canadian fund provide an initial $US300 million of equity funding to help grow the Kraken platform, “supercharging the development of a smart grid”. It will also fund an additional 30 wind turbines to its local wind energy venture, Fan Club, which allows communities to benefit from locally generated renewable energy.
Mr Calabria said that Origin saw the potential in Octopus when it acquired the 20 per cent stake, “and we remain highly optimistic about the growth outlook for the business, which has added a further 1.1 million customers in the UK in the past three months alone”.
Origin noted that Octopus has continued to expand into new markets, most recently in Italy, which followed acquisitions in Spain, Texas and New Zealand, and a strategic partnership with Tokyo Gas in Japan.
