Cactos – intelligent battery storage for the energy transition
Cactos addresses the grid imbalances and local bottlenecks created by the energy transition through intelligent battery energy storage systems. These systems cut peak consumption for businesses and properties, secure critical backup power, and participate in electricity markets.
Why?
Electrification and the growth of renewable energy are reshaping society, but they bring two critical challenges: sharp volatility in electricity prices and limited grid capacity. As properties, logistics, data centres and industry consume ever more electricity, local power peaks emerge that the existing grid cannot accommodate without costly and time-consuming upgrades.
These challenges call for new kinds of solutions. Cactos addresses them by offering customers intelligent battery energy storage systems that provide affordable electricity, independence from the grid, critical backup power, and access to electricity markets.
What and how?
Cactos designs and manufactures its battery storage systems, battery modules, and the software that controls them entirely in-house in Finland. The company takes pride in demonstrating that high-tech battery storage can be designed and built in Finland at a competitive price.
The Cactos Spine software manages the systems in real time: batteries are charged when electricity is cheap and discharged when prices peak. At the same time, the hardware cuts the customer’s peak consumption, provides backup power, and participates automatically in electricity markets, generating revenue for the customer. Through the Energy-as-a-Service model, customers avoid heavy upfront capital investment, as Cactos provides the battery system, maintenance, and energy trading operations as a service.
Growth and internationalisation
Since its founding in 2022, Cactos has grown rapidly. The group’s revenue in the most recent financial year was approximately EUR 18 million, and the current order book exceeds EUR 30 million. Growth is supported by a new battery factory opened in Kempele and the recently launched third-generation product family.
The company’s main markets are the Nordics and the Baltics. It has also delivered systems to Ukraine to secure critical backup power and to the Netherlands to support data centre operations. As a European operator, Cactos differentiates itself from Chinese hardware manufacturers through its end-to-end service offering and Finnish-made hardware and software. Standardised domestic series production allows the company to promise significantly shorter delivery times than international competitors.
The importance of venture capital
Combining manufacturing, hardware investment, and demanding software development is capital-intensive. The growth financing provided by Tesi and other private investors is a prerequisite for Cactos to scale. Market-based funding enables rapid scaling of production technology and the capture of international market share.
Through its investment, Tesi plays an active role in creating significant value: advancing clean economy, nurturing new export industry, and supporting job creation in Finland.
General information
Cactos designs and manufactures battery energy storage systems and was founded in 2021. In its early phase, the company built storage systems from second-life battery modules from electric vehicles, including Teslas. Today, Cactos manufactures the modules itself, making it one of very few Western producers to do so. Only the battery cells come from outside Finland.
Product development and manufacturing are based in Kempele, with additional offices in Helsinki and Amsterdam. The company has around 100 employees, the majority working in production and software development. Over 500 systems have already been delivered. The largest single system delivered by Cactos has a capacity of 14.2 MWh. Cactos recently signed a contract to deliver a portfolio of battery storage systems totalling over 90 MWh to a German infrastructure investor.
Intelligent battery storage for the energy transition
“We operate in manufacturing, and developing top-tier production technology and software requires substantial investment. The involvement of Tesi and other private equity investors is a prerequisite that makes our rapid growth possible.”
- Oskari Jaakkola, CEO, Cactos
