Now based in west London’s trendy Notting Hill, Ovo started as one of a growing breed of challengers taking on incumbent Big Six energy suppliers, which were facing heavy criticism for high prices, poor customer services and slowness to adapt towards cleaner energy.
Led by the fiercely ambitious and competitive Fitzpatrick, Ovo grew steadily until late 2019 when it bought FTSE 100 energy giant SSE’s retail arm for £500m, handing it an extra 3.5m customers in a major moment for the energy industry.
The deal emerged less than six months after Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi took a 20pc stake in the company in February 2019 for £200m, and made Ovo the UK’s third largest supplier. According to Ovo’s latest figures it now has a total of 4.5m customers.
Net zero ambitions
Like its fierce rival Octopus, one of Ovo’s biggest attractions is its technology. The company’s Kaluza platform, licenced to companies such as Italy’s Eni and Australia’s AGL, helps utilities cut costs and improve customer service, as well as integrating electric cars, heaters and air conditioning systems with the main electricity grid.
The idea is to help customers use electricity when it is cheaper and greener, and even sell it back to the grid when needed, helping to balance the system when more renewables are online.
Like many entrepreneurs of his generation, helping to save the planet is core to Fitzpatrick’s ambitions. Ovo wants to be the UK’s “zero carbon living partner” and cut its own emissions to net zero by 2030. Emails from staff come with a footnote highlighting their carbon footprint. The company has also been involved in key low carbon heating trials in Britain.
“I think it’s easy to feel despondent or negative if you feel you don’t understand or there’s nothing you can contribute, if you’re just a passenger,” he told Vanity Fair in December 2019. “But when you become part of the solution, it feels great.”
But such ambitions for a clean-energy future can’t hide the challenges that Ovo and its peers face in the coming months.
Soaring wholesale gas prices that have triggered a market meltdown show little sign of abating, though the reset of the energy price cap in April will provide some relief to suppliers even as it spreads the pain to households.
