Prominent South African energy company files for liquidation

Hohm Energy Services filed for voluntary liquidation with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC).

The company informed creditors that those with claims over R1,000 are entitled to nominate a liquidator for the appointment.

Hohm Energy helped South African homeowners and businesses go solar with accredited solar installers, product suppliers, and embedded solar finance.

“We are evolving the solar purchasing experience for our clients by using scalable technology that seamlessly manages your entire solar journey,” it said.

The energy company started as a solar installation and engineering firm in South Africa a decade ago.

“We realised the scaling limitations of a solar engineering business, and we set out to build a scaling tool to help our business grow,” it said.

It used its knowledge of the local solar industry and paired it with software development expertise to build a solar service platform.

It generated bespoke client solar proposals and automated workflows to speed up the solar sales and deployment journey.

However, it realized there was demand for the service beyond its own clients. In 2020, it rebuilt the source code and spun out of Hohm Energy in 2021 as a climate-tech startup.

“We are now in pursuit of building a global solar network to accelerate the renewable energy transition,” it said.

The founders, Tim Ohlsen and Emir Gluhbegovic, aimed to capture a slice of the $51 billion rooftop solar market value chain.

They said Hohm Energy’s solution was built as an alternative and sustainable energy source for over 7 million addressable households connected to South Africa’s national grid.

Hohm Energy hits tough times

However, the company started to struggle financially, and Hohm Energy entered business rescue on 31 July 2024.

It also halted operations due to cash flow challenges and an inability to service existing debts.

The company has also terminated the contracts of an undisclosed number of employees, and a business rescue practitioner investigated Hohm Energy’s affairs.

Spark Energy CEO Franc Gray previously told MyBroadband that Hohm Energy followed the prescribed business rescue process.

“We still believe in the Hohm proposition and will consider how we could reposition the brand,” he said.

“In terms of Hohm’s customers, Spark is supporting the Hohm management team, who are working with several partners to ensure that there is as little disruption in service as possible during this time.”

Gray listed himself as the founder and CEO of Glint, a subscription service launched by Hohm Energy.

Hohm Energy’s business rescue and liquidation came just months after the company raised $8 million (then R152.5 million) through a record seed-funding round in February.

Hohm Energy said the market had shifted from only affluent homeowners opting for solar to lower-income households.

The company said it has seen a “massive shift from solar being this high-end purchase for only the richest people in South Africa to now becoming accessible to the middle class”.