Elmtronics founders driving new sustainability push in Swarm Energy venture

The co-founders of a County Durham electric vehicle charging point company have launched a fresh green venture.

Dan Martin and Anthony Piggott have founded Swarm Energy.

Spearheaded by what the duo say is a UK-first home energy management system (HEMS) app, they aim to create nearly 20 jobs this year to catalyse the business’ progress across domestic and commercial markets.

The Newcastle-based endeavour comes after Dan and Anthony sold Consett-based Elmtronics to European operator Mer last year.

Dan said: “The sustainability agenda is important to us, as are energy costs.

“However, when we wanted to measure the impact of solutions such as solar panels and electric vehicle charging equipment, we hit a problem.

“There were a lot of apps and smart solutions for each product or measure we’d taken, but they were often hard to use and none of them communicated with each other.

“We realised there was an opportunity to aggregate this information into one app or platform.”

And to roll out its potential, Dan says the business – which is working with fellow Hoults Yard company Opencast to develop its platform – will push its seven-strong team to 25 by the end of the year.

He added: “We’re recruiting across a wide range of roles, which include a lead developer and installation managers with renewables experience; we have a very ambitious, but achievable, growth plan.

“We’re really excited by the potential of Swarm Energy and one of our main objectives is to employ as many people as we can in the North East.

“We’re proud to be from the region – I’m from Rowlands Gill and Anthony is from Consett – and we want to be a vehicle for ambitious, smart people to achieve what they want here.”