They are pioneers in the bilateral energy market. In our 7 questions, the founders of Enmacc reveal how they transformed their company into one of the largest European players in their sector in just four months.
1. Who are you and what do you do? Please briefly introduce yourself and your platform!
Enmacc is the independent platform for bilateral energy trading.
As wholesale products, gas and electricity are traded primarily bilaterally, i.e., directly between market participants, in addition to the exchange. Before Enmacc, this trading was a completely manual process, carried out via email, telephone, fax, or messenger. This highly error-prone process has changed little in the last 15 years.
The energy industry is in the midst of the energy transition and is currently undergoing a radical transformation toward new technologies and business models. Market participants with a professional procurement or trading department are hungry for the digital innovations we offer through our SaaS platform Enmacc. Our target group typically includes utilities, municipal utilities, trading houses, banks, and highly energy-intensive industrial companies. These can be both domestic and foreign companies conducting business for the German electricity or gas market.
We have digitized and partially automated the current manual process, allowing those involved to focus on what matters most: making important decisions. Digitization not only improves efficiency, leading to more business, but also eliminates sources of error.
We, Volker Puck (39), a business economist (VWA) and Marc Trieschmann (38), a graduate in business administration (FH), met in 2006 in foreign exchange trading and sales trading at Unicredit Group in Munich. Volker then moved to the energy industry in 2008, joining Syneco Trading, where he worked as a senior gas trader for eight years. We are not only professional colleagues, but also very good friends outside of work. How did the idea come about? Volker's dissatisfaction with the outdated processes in direct bilateral energy trading gave us the impetus to jointly develop our own solution for the market and to found Enmacc. Together, we refined the idea and surveyed the market for competitors. We were astonished to discover that there was no such idea or solution anywhere in Europe. Now there is Enmacc!
2. But that's been around for a long time!
Enmacc enjoys a unique position in the bilateral energy market. There is currently no independent platform for bilateral trade that allows for negotiations and trade with many trading partners simultaneously.
“We know the market like the back of our hand”
3. What are the three main ingredients for your recipe for success?
Our three main ingredients for Enmacc are:
– As former traders, we know the market and its problems like the back of our hand.
– We have a large team of excellent software developers, some of whom come from research backgrounds, and who not only use the latest technologies but have also helped develop them.
– We have sought feedback from our customers and partners from the very beginning and will continue to respond to their wishes and requirements.
4. Let’s get down to business: How is business going?
We hope the path continues to be this steep. In just four months, we have become the largest independent European platform for bilateral trading on the market, with monthly trading volume growth on the platform of almost 501,000,000. We are on a very promising path.
5. What does Munich mean to you?
One of the most beautiful cities in the world, we are delighted to be promoting Munich as an energy hub. Munich has a vibrant startup scene and, in this respect, has nothing to hide behind other metropolises.
6. How will your startup become the next unicorn? Or will we see you soon at Epic Fail Night?
We're in a very solid financial position: In December, we completed a very significant financing round with Cherry Ventures and Berlin Ventures, among others. We're now in the fortunate position of being able to invest in the further development of Enmacc with a long-term perspective – and also embark on our European expansion.
7. Helles or Prosecco?
Light.
