The most expensive mistake a power grid operator can make is building a new substation in the wrong place. In Sweden, where the push for electrification is turning every new housing development and EV charger into a potential grid bottleneck, a small Gothenburg startup is betting that better data can prevent those mistakes. Endre Technologies AB, a spinout from Chalmers University of Technology, is selling a forecasting platform that models electricity demand down to the neighborhood level, not for next week, but for the next five to ten years [BounceWatch, Unknown].
A bet on granular, long-term forecasting
Endre's core product is what it calls a 'Digital Societal Twin,' a software model that ingests what it describes as extensive multi-source societal data,think building permits, transportation plans, and demographic shifts,to generate hourly electricity demand forecasts for single neighborhoods [Teeming AI, Unknown]. The output isn't a single number, but a probability distribution, giving grid planners a range of possible futures to plan against. For a distribution network operator (DSO), the value is straightforward: knowing exactly where and when new capacity will be needed allows for smarter, cheaper grid investments. It automates network development plans and aims to provide visual clarity on local bottlenecks, a task often still managed with spreadsheets and decades-old load profiles [Teeming AI, Unknown].
The academic wedge and early traction
Endre's technical foundation comes directly from research at Chalmers University of Technology, which also provided its first institutional backer, Chalmers Ventures [BounceWatch, Unknown]. The company's reported pre-seed funding is inconsistent across sources, with one citing SEK 475,000 (estimated ~$45,000) and another reporting SEK 7 million (estimated ~$660,000) [BounceWatch, Unknown] [Dealroom.co, Unknown]. What is clearer is its early commercial path. Endre is a member of the Glava Energy Center, an innovation cluster, and has completed a pilot project with the center and the research institute RISE, testing its analysis methods on two local grids in the Värmland region [Glava Energy Center, 2026]. The conclusion from that work, according to the center, was that data analysis tools can play a key role in the transition to more flexible power grids.
The competitive landscape and the incumbent
Endre operates in a niche that is both specialized and increasingly crowded. It is not competing with day-ahead trading algorithms but with the legacy planning processes of grid operators and a growing field of grid-edge analytics firms. While no direct competitors are named in the available sources, the company's differentiation rests on the granularity of its forecast (hourly, neighborhood-level) and its extremely long time horizon. The real competitor, however, isn't another startup. It's the conservative inertia of the grid planning office itself, where multi-million-euro decisions have historically been made with simpler tools and a heavy margin of safety.
A back-of-the-envelope calculation illustrates the stakes. If a typical grid reinforcement project costs several million euros, and Endre's platform can help a DSO defer or downsize just one such project across its service area, the savings would cover the SaaS fee many times over. The unit economics of climate tech are often about avoiding cost, not just generating revenue. For Endre to succeed, it must prove its forecasts are more reliable and actionable than the incumbent methodology,the planner's intuition, colored by years of experience and a handful of deterministic spreadsheets.
Sources
- [BounceWatch, Unknown] Endre - Overview | https://www.bouncewatch.com/explore/startup/endre
- [Dealroom.co, Unknown] Endre Technologies raises SEK 7M pre-seed for grid-planning software | https://app.dealroom.co/news/note/endre-technologies-raises-sek-7m-pre-seed-for-grid-planning-software
- [Teeming AI, Unknown] Endre Technologies AB | https://teeming.ai/c/endre-technologies-ab/ccbfcd39-ec98-468e-9e91-bf06e0b4563f
- [Chalmers Ventures, Unknown] Endre Technologies | https://chalmersventures.com/startups/endre-technologies/
- [Glava Energy Center, 2026] Endre | https://glavaenergycenter.se/en/membership/members/endre.html