Bulb (predecessor)

Bulb's failure was not a technology problem — it was a failure to understand that energy supply is a commodity hedging business wearing a customer service costume. The company locked in fixed-price retail contracts with customers while leaving its wholesale gas exposure unhedged, a bet that worked beautifully when wholesale prices were falling from 2016-2020 and collapsed instantly when prices spiked in 2021. Every UK energy supplier faced the same crisis but the vertically integrated incumbents with generation assets and sophisticated hedging desks survived — 30 venture-backed challengers did not. Octopus Energy paid nothing for Bulb's 1.5 million customers because the liability of serving them at below-cost rates exceeded the value of the customer relationships. The £2.2 billion taxpayer bailout that kept Bulb operating through administration represents the largest subsidy per customer in UK energy market history — £1,467 per household.

VERDICT: ZOMBIECORN — THE COMPANY THAT RAISED £60M TO DISRUPT ENERGY MARKETS INSTEAD DEMONSTRATED THAT VENTURE CAPITAL AND UNHEDGED COMMODITY EXPOSURE ARE IMMISCIBLE SUBSTANCES, PRODUCING A £2.2 BILLION TAXPAYER-FUNDED EXPLOSION