Elax Énergie, a Paris company that makes connected controllers for electric water heaters, has raised €30m (about $33.6m). It announced the round on 20 October 2026.
The investors are Noria and Crédit Mutuel Impact, which invested through its Fonds Révolution Environnementale et Solidaire, the company said. Elax did not name a lead investor, give the stage of the round or say how it splits between equity and debt.
No valuation was disclosed.
What Elax Énergie does
Elax fits a small device to a home's electric hot-water tank that decides when the tank heats water. By shifting heating to hours when electricity is cheaper or more plentiful, it aims to cut bills and ease pressure on the grid. Dealroom described the idea as turning water heaters into grid batteries.
The box takes about 20 minutes to install and connects over a mobile network rather than the home's Wi-Fi, according to FrenchWeb and Dealroom. After a period in which it learns a household's habits, it adjusts the water temperature and heating cycles. It can, for example, heat the tank in the early afternoon when solar output is high and hold the hot water until it is used. The company said the device also detects limescale for predictive maintenance. It is designed and made in France, in Lannion in Brittany.
FrenchWeb reported that the company claims savings of 20% to 25% on water-heater consumption. FrenchWeb noted that the figure covers only hot-water production, not the whole electricity bill, and that the measurement method was developed with the consultancy Carbone 4.
Elax said it has equipped nearly 100,000 homes and works with more than 100 social landlords, which manage subsidised housing in France. Founded in 2021 by Jean-François Eggericx, Thomas Tirtiaux and Samuel Beaussier, according to FrenchWeb, it has 58 employees.
How Elax makes money
Elax pools the ability of many homes to shift their consumption and sells that flexibility on electricity markets. FrenchWeb cited a LinkedIn post in which Tirtiaux said this revenue had allowed the company to drop the subscription it previously charged landlords for controlling their water heaters. FrenchWeb added that Elax did not disclose its flexibility revenue per device or the full cost of equipping a home, and named Voltalis and Octopus Energy as competitors.
Who invested
Christophe Guillaume, co-founder and president of Noria, said in French that investing was an obvious choice given how pragmatic the solution is.
Nadia Bouzigues, chief executive of Crédit Mutuel Impact, said the bank's impact arm was pleased to back the company. Chief executive Thomas Tirtiaux said that by equipping households, Elax protects people's purchasing power.
Noria is a family investment firm focused on energy, Elax said. Crédit Mutuel Impact's fund, created in July 2023, is financed by the societal dividend of Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale and has made more than 29 investments.
What the money is for
Elax said it will use the money to roll its device out more widely in social housing, to electrify shared boiler rooms in apartment blocks, to build its Elax Pro installer network and to hire. It plans to add 30 people by the end of 2027.
In shared boiler rooms, Elax said its technology can move up to 50% of gas-based production to electricity. Elax Pro will open the device to plumbers, electricians and heating engineers. The new hires will mainly be in R&D, engineering, operations, sales and field deployment. Dealroom described the move from social housing into private homes as untested.
The company's bet, as described by FrenchWeb and Dealroom, is that heating water at the right moment can save households money and give the grid a flexible load to draw on.
Company website: elaxenergie.com