Kraken uses AI to automate customer service and billing for energy companies and can manage when customers use energy, rewarding them for reducing consumption at peak times.
It was initially built for use by Octopus but has since picked up a raft of other utilities clients, including EDF, E.On Next, TalkTalk and National Grid US. It now serves 70 million household and business accounts around the world.
The majority of the $1bn investment will go to Octopus to fund its expansion, with Kraken receiving the rest. Mr Jackson said Kraken will be operating completely independently of Octopus “within a few months”.
Other investors in the business included Fidelity International and a unit of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, with Octopus maintaining a 13.7% stake in Kraken.
Kraken chief executive Amir Orad said the spinoff would give it the “focus and freedom” to grow, with the company having previously struggled to do business with Octopus’s rivals.