Food industry giants producing snacks, petfood or ingredients, as well as laundries, foundries and other process industry, all boast heavy-duty ventilation systems. Most of the energy they consume, is used solely one time and then vented out – Enjay deploys their patented technology, to turn that waste into a growing portfolio of recurring revenue contracts. With backing from major investment players such as Karl-Johan Persson and Gustaf Hermelin, and the Swedish Energy Agency, Enjay has reached proof of concept in a number of industries. Since the take-off in the ventilation intensive fast food industry back in 2019, they have since then completed almost 200 projects.
”Industrial processes make up for one third of the energy consumption on earth, and a large part§ of it is only used once why the heat that goes out with ventilation is an utapped source of energy. We call it Waste Heat Power and we are the first energy company to deliver energy sourced from it” says Nils Lekeberg, Vice president & co-founder of Enjay.
We are looking forward to hearing more about Enjay’s Waste Heat Power at the presentations on the 2nd of December. McKinsey has made estimations that 3 100 Tera Watt hours are waste heat annually. Just in comparison, if you add up the energy produced in 2024 by all nuclear plants in the world, that was 2 800 Tera Watt hours. Enjay’s heat exchanger technology unlocks the potential of Waste Heat Power, recovering the heat, generating 100% renewable energy, and available at the spot without any distribution grid necessary.
”We developed and patented a new core technology for heat exchangers, where we make use of physical natural forces in a complete novel way. This technical pivot is what now enable us to turn Waste Heat Power via Energy-as-a-Service contracts into a quickly growing ARR portfolio” says Nils Lekeberg.
Enjay follows a structured sales process when entering a new segment. By first establishing a repeatable technical solution, which can then be rolled-out to small, medium and large scale key-accounts in that same industry. There are already solutions for the snacks industry, the petfood industry, and the fastfood industry and Enjay will be laser-focused on developing these three over the next 18 months.
”We have de-risked our technology as well as customer acceptance and market scalability. Now we are raising a small €1M round at the end of 2025, allowing us to fully de-risk the EaaS model ahead of a larger A-round for scale-up in 2027” says Lekeberg.
Waste Heat Power is attracting high interest from investors, and with Enjay’s track record they are now in a sweet spot for investments. When we ask Lekeberg how he feels about being part of the 7th annual Sweden Sustaintech Venture Day as a first time participant, he says that based on the past positive experiences from being a part of the Cleantech Scandinavia and Swedish Energy Agency Accelerator, his expectations from this highly reputed event are high.
Short questions for Nils
- Name: Nils Lekeberg
- Age: 52
- Title: Vice President and Co-Founder
- Last book read: Strange the dreamer, by Laini Taylor (a must-read!)
- Mantra: As an entrepreneur, your life is full of tasks, not problems.
- Best tip for a sustainable future: What you do, matters.
