Otovo debuts service product with 3,000 first customers signed up
Otovo has signed up its first 3,000 service customers in Germany, Norway,Spainand Sweden as it debuts its offering of remote monitoring and diagnostics,accelerated response time, and discounted service work on batteries, invertersand solar panels.
Most customers have signed up for 12 months service paid upfront resulting inaEUR 115 annual average revenue per user, representing EUR 350,000 in annualrecurring revenue.
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Recurring revenue with attractive margins
The product is priced at EUR9 per month for customers signing up for 12months,and EUR12 per month for those preferring a monthly commitment and billing. The3,000 first customers have signed up in order to keep service levels highaftertheir initial warranties have expired or have joined Otovo after being offeredthe product in relation to the discontinuation of Zolar, a German competitor.
Otovo also opened the product up to the German, Spanish, Norwegian and Swedishgeneral homeowning public this week, meaning the service subscription isaccessible also for customers who have bought installations through competinginstaller companies.
- For the solar and battery installation businesses across Europe, service andmaintenance has been an overlooked and poorly treated customer need. Ingeneralthis industry overpromises on day one and underdelivers for twenty years whenitcomes to helping customers get full value from their systems, says AndreasThorsheim, Otovo CEO.
- We are now addressing this problem with two good products: OTOVO LEASING,where customers pay a monthly fee to have a fully functioning system up andrunning at all times at zero upfront cost; and OTOVO CARE, the new servicesubscription where solar system owners can get monitoring, maintenance andhelpfor a small monthly payment.
Otovo is so far averaging 56 euros in direct customer acquisition cost forthesefirst customers.
The service customers represent a recurring revenue stream with attractivemargin. Otovo can leverage the company's existing operations centers andinstaller network already in place in multiple locations in Europe.
- For Otovo, the addition of a recurring revenue product on top of alreadyexisting installation-based revenue streams represents an important driver togrow the topline, says Andreas Thorsheim, Otovo CEO.
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EUR 1 billion market opportunity
When homeowners install a solar system, battery storage, or a wallbox, theyarenot just putting hardware on their roof or in their garage. They have investedin decades of energy independence, lower electricity bills, and a cleanerfuture. Solar and battery technologies typically save European homeownersthousands of euros per year. Otovo's view is that such an investment deservestobe looked after day after day, even as original warranties expire, equipmentmakers' guarantees reach their age limit, or suppliers go out of business.
In Europe more than 15 million homes have been outfitted with solar panels inthe last 20 years. Because of the volatility in the markets over the years,foras much as a third of these systems the original installer company is nolongeroperational. This leaves systems "orphaned" and under-supported.
- The service market is a billion euro per year opportunity across Europe. Webelieve Otovo has a big role to play as millions of homeowners find they havenobody to call when their systems have downtime, and people are losing out onthe value of their systems because of this, says Thorsheim.
Since 2016, Otovo has installed tens of thousands of solar systems in 13European countries and knows how important it is for system owners to havesomeone by their side when they wonder if something is wrong, whether it canberepaired, and who can reliably support them.
Otovo aims to grow its service product by offering it to customers getting newinstallations from Otovo itself and through its installer ecosystem; to itsexisting customer base (30,000+) and the Otovo installer corps' customers(300,000+), and through customer acquisition to "orphan" system owners.
The Otovo service product launched across four European countries this week isaligned with the offer given through Otovo USA. There are significant overlapsrelated to brand, product design, required software development and theinfrastructure needed to provide this product in the European and US markets.
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For further queries, please contact:
Andreas Thorsheim, Chief Executive OfficerPhone: +47 93 06 51 78
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About Otovo: For homeowners, Otovo is the easiest way to get solar panels ontheroof, and batteries in the home. Otovo is a marketplace that organizeshundredsof local, high quality and qualified energy installers. The company uses itsproprietary technology to analyze the potential of any home and finds the bestprice and installer for customers based on an automatic bidding processbetweenavailable installers.
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