With heating and cooling consuming half of Europe’s energy, the heat sector is increasingly being challenged to supply heat more efficiently and sustainably. Heat networks will play a major role in decarbonising heating to meet climate goals. Currently, the major challenge for heat networks is to increase their efficiency.

Since its beginnings, Minibems has been active in the social housing market in Scotland with an office in Glasgow since 2018 and a commercial associate of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) since early 2019.

Minibems has already been specified by a leading Scottish housing association and fitted into a number of live communal heating networks. Minibems is at heart a low carbon technology and comes at a time when the Scottish Government has launched the Green New Deal, with district heating networks central to government policy and due to be enshrined in law via the Heat Networks Bill.

“Minibems improves the operation and performance of heat networks for all members in the value chain. This multi-benefit application allows for the fast deployment of Minibems in new and retrofit heat networks, a truly unique position,” said Craig Douglas, investment manager at SET Ventures. “We believe that the execution experience and knowledge of the team can drive this company to great success.”

Emma Steele, investment manager of Ascension Ventures, added: “Minibems is a good example of Fair By Design supporting a B2B business where the service delivered and route to market is key to tackling fuel poverty – a core aspect of the poverty premium in the UK. We are delighted to support the innovative approach taken by Minibems by leveraging IoT technology to ensure it is applicable to existing and new heat networks. The result will impact fuel poverty by helping lower-income families to stay warm at a lower cost.”

Finian Parrick, CEO of Minibems, said: “This investment is great news for Minibems, our customers and partners and enables us to invest heavily in our service offering, software and product to deliver better-performing heat networks that use less fuel, facilitate decarbonisation and cost less to maintain. Partnering with SET Ventures helps us reach customers across Northern Europe where their expertise and market knowledge will help us expand our operations.”

Mr Parrick added: “We’d also like to thank and recognise the following companies for their greatly valued role in securing this next stage in our growth: SETSquared, EDF Bluelab and IDEALondon for incubating the business and to NovAzure for managing the funding process.”