TRENDE Inc., a renewable energy retailer in Japan, announced today that it has successfully completed a Series B funding round from ITOCHU Corporation of 1 billion yen in a combination of equity and unsecured convertible bonds.
“We’re extremely pleased to have ITOCHU as an investor and partner in our mission to accelerate the widespread adoption of renewable energy in Japan,” said Tadatoshi Senoo, CEO of TRENDE. “Bringing together TRENDE’s expertise in distributed energy with ITOCHU’s leadership in energy storage systems creates a really powerful combination. We are jointly developing a new service that combines distributed solar generation with energy storage and expect to release it later this year.”
TRENDE’s current products include “Ashita Denki,” an online service offering residential customers simple and affordable energy plans and “Hot Denki,” a service incentivizing customers to become prosumers with an innovative third-party ownership model that enables homeowners to gain the benefits of having a solar system on their roof without the upfront costs of purchasing the system. TRENDE is also developing a peer-to-peer (P2P) electricity trading system in order to further facilitate the efficient use and adoption of renewable energy.
ITOCHU is the leader in Japan’s energy storage sector. The company has sold more than 30,000 of its “Smart Star” energy storage systems as of the end of March 2020 and integrated these systems with Moixa’s “GridShare” AI software to create a next-generation energy storage system. The company’s growing energy storage systems business helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by increasing the ratio of renewable energy, ensuring a stable power supply and realizing a distributed energy society.
“Given the intermittent nature of many renewable sources, energy storage has a critical role to play in facilitating society’s widespread adoption of renewable energy and the shift away from burning fossil fuels,” said Hiroaki Murase, General Manager of Sustainable Energy Business Department at ITOCHU. “We are excited to partner with TRENDE and share a common vision for a distributed energy society powered by renewable energy.”
About TRENDE
TRENDE Inc. is an online renewable energy retailer selling electricity to residential customers in Japan via its Hot Denki (https://hotdenki.jp) and Ashita Denki (https://ashita-denki.jp/) service websites. TRENDE’s mission is to accelerate the widespread adoption of renewable energy and redefine the energy ecosystem in Japan with a customer-centric business model and innovative P2P platform. The company’s investors include Tokyo Electric Power, Itochu, Idemitsu and Dubai Electricity and Water Authority. For more information, please visit http://trende.jp/.
About ITOCHU Corporation
The history of ITOCHU Corporation dates back to 1858 when the Company’s founder Chubei Itoh commenced linen trading operations. Since then, ITOCHU has evolved and grown over 150 years. With approximately 110 bases in 63 countries, ITOCHU is a major general trading company that develops a wide range of businesses globally in the fields of textiles, machinery, metals, energy, chemicals, food, living, information, and finance. In 2015 the company became the number one general trading company based on the strength of its non-resource related businesses. Consolidated net income in fiscal 2019 was 501.3 billion yen, the second consecutive year it exceeded 500 billion yen.