Native name | 에너지엑스 주식회사 |
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Company type | Private |
Industry |
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Founded | 2019 |
Founder |
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Headquarters | Seoul, South Korea |
Area served |
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Key people |
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Website | energyx |
EnergyX Inc. (Korean: 에너지엑스 주식회사), headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, is a sustainability architectural platform and energy technology company.[1]
EnergyX provides architectural platform services, alongside sustainability and energy solutions that span across software, hardware, and consulting domains.[2]
EnergyX was founded in 2019 by Sean Park (Korean: 박성현) and Tom Hong (Korean: 홍두화).[3]
EnergyX is uses data-driven technology in sustainable architecture. The company's IT platform integrates a wide range of suppliers and proprietary technologies, streamlining the processes involved in sustainable building construction.[4]
The company's suite of services caters to architects, building owners, and construction companies, offering a solution for both new construction and retrofitting projects designed to meet green building standards, such as Zero Energy Building (ZEB) and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). EnergyX also supports various energy transition initiatives, including Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) compliance and the RE100 initiative.[5]
Sean Park and Tom Hong originally founded the investment technology platform company, Xquare Inc. (Korean: 엑스퀘어 주식회사; previously known as Energy Exchange), in 2018. Their vision was to facilitate investments in global renewable energy and sustainable construction projects for both corporate entities and individual investors.[3] However, as they delved deeper into the industry, they identified shortcomings in the implementation and management of energy technologies in the market. In response to these challenges, they decided to establish an ecosystem dedicated to addressing these issues, leading to the creation of EnergyX in February 2019.
Within three months, EnergyX and Xquare merged, making Xquare a subsidiary company of EnergyX in May 2019.[6]
EnergyX, however, raised Hyundai-led venture capital funding, with Xquare serving as one of the company's main business lines.[3] This funding process spanned from the Seed round ($100k in 2019) to the Pre-Series A round ($3 million in 2019) and partially extended to the Series A round ($8.1 million in 2020).[7]
The company's architectural platform and energy technology business began to gain traction from 2020 onwards.[8] The company was also selected as the first energy company to participate in the esteemed K-Unicorn program by Korea's Ministry of SMEs and Startups.[9]
EnergyX transitioned from primarily serving individual and smaller construction projects to catering to a broader market, which included larger corporate entities such as KB Financial Group,[10] Oriental Brewery,[11] Atlas Copco,[12] among others.
In 2021, EnergyX surpassed its local competitors, emerging as a leader in the architectural platform market in Korea. By 2022, the company had accumulated a construction traffic volume exceeding $1 billion cumulatively.[13]
Despite facing the challenging fundraising landscape of the decade, the company obtained an oversubscribed Series B funding round, led by Shinhan Financial Group, amassing $20 million at $120 million valuation in January 2023.[14]
In 2023, EnergyX opened the EnergyX DY-Building (Korean: 에너지엑스 DY빌딩), the first commercial Net-Zero Energy Building (NZEB, or ZEB grade 1), and the first Plus Energy Building (+ZEB, or ZEB grade plus) in South Korea.[15] The construction, design, and engineering of this project were led by EnergyX, leveraging its proprietary technologies and services. EnergyX DY-Building received ZEB certification with an energy independence rate (or energy self-sufficiency rate) of 121.7%, which marks the building as a carbon neutral, energy-efficient building.[16]