The first commercial Cactos One system was installed in August 2022. Its charging and discharging capacity was 45 kilovolt-amperes and capacity 100 kilowatt-hours. An electric car, for example, would travel 400–500 kilometers with the capacity of the electricity storage.

“Increasing peak powers will become a problem as societies become electrified. What used to run on oil is now increasingly powered by electricity. In Central Europe, it is already difficult to get new connections to electricity grids, because grid investments are expensive and time-consuming. An electricity storage is the solution to this problem,” says Oskari Jaakkola, CEO of Cactos Oy, describing the business idea.

As is often the case with growth companies, rapid growth can be seen in the result – strongly in red.

“In the first financial year, our net sales were approximately EUR 820,000, and we made a loss of more than EUR 500,000,” says Jaakkola.

In the second financial year, our net sales amounted to EUR 3.1 million, but the result was still approximately EUR 230,000 negative.

“Currently, our net sales are just over one million euros per month. The target for the financial year is to generate a profitable turnover of approximately EUR 14 million. It looks good now, but we have to work for it all the time.”

Cooperation with OP Suomi Infra

Three factors have contributed to growth in the current financial year.

“We launched the new Cactos Two system, which has more than doubled the size of the electricity storage. It has sold really well.”

Cactos has also made its first exports abroad.

“The most interesting export markets for us are Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Ukraine.”

The new 10-megawatt-hour electricity storage facility built in Kuhmoinen was connected to the electricity grid at the turn of the year, and it is basically available for sale.

Cactos’ largest customer group is transport companies. The next largest sectors are industry, residential properties, public administration and the service sector.

“We differentiate ourselves from the competition by offering everything under one roof: we manufacture battery modules, add intelligence to electricity storage systems and provide a control system. We provide software, install, deploy, maintain and monitor it.”

Cactos has a factory in Kempele and offices in Helsinki and Amsterdam.

“OP Uusimaa handles our banking services, such as accounting, financing and foreign exchange transactions,” says Jaakkola.

He praises the bank’s contact person for their ability to understand what Cactos does and what the company's needs are.

“OP Uusimaa also introduced us to OP Suomi Infra, which is the largest investor in our fund. By December 2023, we had received EUR 26 million in new investments in our fund. This has enabled our rapid growth.” 

The export market and large investments have accelerated the growth story of Cactos, which was founded three years ago. Strong growth has been seen in the result – in red.

Oskari Jaakkola sees smart electricity storage systems as a solution to many of today’s problems.

Smart electricity storage

  • Protects against market risk. The electricity storage can be charged when electricity is cheap and discharged when electricity is expensive.
  • Enables you to store the energy you produce and sell it to the grid when it is most profitable.
  • Opens up access to the reserve market. The transmission system operator Fingrid pays the operators in the reserve market for storing energy when too much energy is produced and for distributing energy when too little energy is produced.
  • Ensures business continuity during a power outage.
  • Enables higher peak power than the connection. Can reduce electricity transmission power fees and save money by balancing consumption peaks.

 

Avoid common growth company pitfalls

  1. If you succeed in something, you should not get too comfortable, because it may not have been entirely due to your own skills. On the other hand, if you fail, it does not mean that you made a mistake. Maybe reasons that are not in your control were not favourable at the time.
  2. The right team is really important. Every entrepreneur needs a team close with whom to discuss matters and share responsibility. You should select your team carefully and try to share responsibility with the team members as well.
  3. The most important thing in financing is to minimise capital costs.

Keep an open mind and strive to build a capital structure for the company that is as efficient as possible, i.e. costs as little as possible.

It usually consists not only of share capital, debt or cash flow, but a combination of these. It is different for every company.

Tips: Oskari Jaakkola

OP Uusimaa is your company’s partner in various situations. As the largest OP cooperative bank in Finland, we provide solutions that are guaranteed to meet every need you or your company have. Read more‍.