MaxEnergy
MaxEnergy is a privately held German energy retailer supplying 100% green electricity and gas to 120,000+ residential customers in Germany and Austria through a digital self-serve platform, with AI-powered bill upload, no contract binding, and eco-themed tariff tiers.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2008
- HeadquartersAugsburg, Germany
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingServices
What MaxEnergy does
MaxEnergy (legal name: MAXENERGY GmbH) is a privately held German energy retailer headquartered in Augsburg, founded in 2008/2009 and operating as a GmbH under an undisclosed parent conglomerate. The company supplies 100% green electricity and natural gas to over 120,000 residential customers in Germany and Austria under a no-contract-binding model, with tariffs spanning entry-level (MAX Basic), price-guaranteed (MAX Safety, 24-month guarantee), and environmental-impact (MAX Ocean, ocean plastic removal via everwave) tiers, plus combined electricity/gas, heat pump-specific, and EV-oriented (MAX Home+Drive) products.
The company runs a digital-first, self-serve platform: customers select tariffs through an online calculator, upload a photo or PDF of their current bill, and the AI-powered extraction (delivered via backbone.one GmbH's SaaS running on Microsoft Azure) automatically populates switching data. A password-protected customer portal handles ongoing contract and billing administration. Distribution is purely online — no physical retail — supported by SEO, Google Ads, an affiliate network (CommunicationAds), a managed referral program (Tellja, paying €50 per successful referral), and an educational content library (MAX Magazin). Additional revenue streams include referral commissions from solar partners energie schwaben solar and Otovo.
The operating model is lean (11–50 employees), asset-light, and reliant on third-party technology vendors (backbone.one for AI, Tellja for referrals, Matomo/Hotjar for analytics, Usercentrics for consent) rather than in-house platform development. The business model is straightforward subscription recurring revenue from commodity energy supply, with margins dependent on wholesale energy costs, competitive pricing in a deregulated German retail market, and customer churn given the no-binding contract structure.
MaxEnergy firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- MaxEnergy
- Legal name
- MAXENERGY GmbH
- Website
- https://maxenergy.de
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2008
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- MaxEnergy is a privately held German energy retailer supplying 100% green electricity and gas to 120,000+ residential customers in Germany and Austria through a digital self-serve platform, with AI-powered bill upload, no contract binding, and eco-themed tariff tiers.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
MaxEnergy industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Residential Energy Supply
- NAICS
- Utilities (22), Natural Gas Distribution (221210), Electric Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution (2211)
- SIC
- Natural Gas Transmisison & Distribution (4923)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Green Tariffs & Utility Renewable Supply Programs (EUAGADAJ)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Regulated Natural Gas Utility (LDC) Customer Acquisition & Switching (EUAAADAA), Demand Response, Utility Program Enrollment & Smart HVAC Optimization (HSAOANAJ)
Keywords
Where MaxEnergy is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Augsburg
- HQ country
- Germany
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
MaxEnergy business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Electricity Supply Contracts: Recurring monthly subscription billing for residential electricity supply. Customers select from tariff tiers (MAX Safety, MAX Basic, MAX Ocean) offering 100% green electricity with varying value-added features. No contract duration binding.
- Gas Supply Contracts: Recurring monthly subscription billing for residential gas supply. Offered as standalone gas tariffs or combined with electricity in a combi tariff.
- Heat Pump Tariffs: Dedicated electricity tariff for heat pump customers, billed on heat pump-specific consumption profiles.
- Referral Program (Freunde werben Freunde): Customer referral incentive program. Existing customers earn 50 EUR commission for each new customer successfully referred who completes a contract. Administered via Tellja GmbH platform.
- Solar/Photovoltaic Referrals: Revenue from referral commissions for photovoltaic system offerings through partnerships with energie schwaben solar and Otovo. MAXENERGY earns commissions for referring customers to third-party solar installers.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | MAX Safety: Maximum price security with 24-month price guarantee, 100% green energy, and monthly tree planting |
| Subscription | Monthly | MAX Basic: Basic supply, flexible and affordable, 100% green energy |
| Subscription | Monthly | MAX Ocean: Environmental tier supporting ocean plastic cleanup and 100% green energy |
| Subscription | Monthly | Combi (Electricity + Gas): Combined electricity and gas tariff for dual supply |
| Subscription | Monthly | Heat Pump Tariff: Dedicated electricity tariff for heat pump heating systems |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels11 records
MaxEnergy product offering
Product offeringCore offering
MaxEnergy supplies 100% renewable electricity and natural gas to residential households in Germany and Austria through subscription-based green-energy tariffs (MAX Basic, MAX Safety with 24-month price guarantee, MAX Ocean with ocean cleanup, combined electricity+gas, and heat pump-specific tariffs). Customers sign up and switch providers entirely online via an AI-powered bill-upload and tariff-comparison platform, with no contract duration binding.
Product overview
MaxEnergy is an eco-energy supplier offering a portfolio of electricity and gas tariffs without contract commitment. The core product lineup includes MAX Basic (entry-level), MAX Safety (premium with price guarantee), MAX Ocean (ocean cleanup focus), Kombitarif (combined electricity/gas), and Wärmepumpentarif (heat pump tariff). The MAX Home+Drive plan targets EV owners. Digital services include a customer portal for contract management and an AI-powered invoice upload feature for automated comparison offers. Through partnerships, MaxEnergy also offers photovoltaic systems via energie schwaben solar. Customer engagement is supported by the MAX Magazin content platform and a referral program (Freunde werben) offering 50 Euro bonuses per successful recommendation.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- MAX Safety: Tariff with maximum price security, 24-month price guarantee, and 100% eco-energy.
- MAX Basic
- MAX Ocean
Quantifiable outcome
- Over 120,000 customers trust MAXENERGY with their energy supply
- +5 more outcomes
Companies that use MaxEnergy
Customer profileNamed customers5 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
MaxEnergy technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration9 records
AI capability2 records
Feature4 records
MaxEnergy partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- everwavecoreMAXENERGY partners with everwave through the MAX Ocean tariff, which removes 1kg of ocean plastic per month per customer and supports water body cleanup. This partnership enables MAXENERGY to offer environmental value beyond renewable energy, differentiating its tariff portfolio. The partnership was highlighted in the MAX Magazin article on Clean-up Days (October 2025), where MAXENERGY and everwave conducted a final cleanup event for the MAX Ocean initiative.
- energie schwaben solarcoreMAXENERGY refers customers to energie schwaben solar for photovoltaic (PV) system installation. energie schwaben solar provides glass-glass premium modules with 4.5 kWp performance, installation, and administrative support. MAXENERGY earns referral commissions from these leads. The partnership extends MAXENERGY's energy offering beyond electricity and gas supply into solar generation.
- Tellja GmbHcoreTellja GmbH provides the technology platform for MAXENERGY's 'Freunde werben Freunde' referral program. The platform handles referral link generation, tracking (30-day validity), cookie management, commission calculation, and payout processing. Referrers receive 50 EUR per successful new customer acquisition. MAXENERGY uses Tellja's affiliate marketing infrastructure.
- CommunicationAds GmbH & Co. KGminorMAXENERGY participates in CommunicationAds affiliate marketing network. Partner websites direct traffic to MAXENERGY via tracked links. Cookies with 60-day validity are set when visitors arrive from partner sites. Commission is paid for successful conversions (energy supply contracts). CommunicationAds handles partner management and billing.
- Otovo GmbHminorMAXENERGY redirects customers to Otovo GmbH (Berlin) for photovoltaic system quotes. Otovo specializes in residential solar installations and provides instant online quotes. MAXENERGY earns referral commissions for PV leads generated through this partnership.
- backbone.one GmbHcoreMAXENERGY uses backbone.one's AI-powered SaaS platform (running on Microsoft Azure) for automated document processing. The AI extracts relevant contract and consumption data from uploaded energy bills, creates personalized comparison offers, and detects incomplete or unreadable documents. backbone.one processes data as a data processor under MAXENERGY's instructions. Processing occurs on EU-based servers.
Scale indicators4 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
MaxEnergy competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Naturstrom AG: German eco-energy supplier offering 100% renewable electricity and gas to private households and businesses, with a strong sustainability and citizen-ownership ethos. Closely comparable to MaxEnergy's 100% green positioning and residential focus.
- Lichtblick SE: Germany's largest independent green electricity supplier (operating under the 'Zuhause' brand), offering 100% renewable electricity and gas to residential customers with a strong digital/tech-led brand. Highly comparable to MaxEnergy in green positioning, customer base, and digital-first distribution.
- Yello Strom GmbH: E.ON's direct-to-consumer energy brand offering electricity and gas to German households with strong digital and brand-led marketing. Competes with MaxEnergy in the same residential D2C green-energy niche but with significantly more marketing muscle.
- eprimo GmbH: A large German green energy retailer owned by E.ON, serving hundreds of thousands of residential customers with electricity and gas tariffs. Direct competitor to MaxEnergy in the German eco-energy retail segment, with similar product positioning (green energy, online switching) but substantially greater scale and a corporate parent.
Others
- Otovo ASA: European residential solar installer with German operations; MaxEnergy's referral partner for solar leads and a thematically adjacent player in the residential decarbonization stack. Useful peer for assessing the solar-referral and EV-adjacent growth vectors MaxEnergy is pursuing.
Broad incumbents
- E.ON SE: Europe's largest investor-owned energy company and parent of Yello and eprimo; supplies electricity and gas to tens of millions of customers across Germany and Europe. Competes with MaxEnergy across the entire German residential market, including through its direct-to-consumer digital brands.
- EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG: One of Germany's largest integrated utilities, supplying electricity, gas, and increasingly green energy to millions of residential and business customers. Overlaps with MaxEnergy in residential green supply but operates a much broader portfolio (generation, T&D, e-mobility, telecom).
- GASAG AG: Major Berlin-based gas and heat supplier serving residential and commercial customers with increasingly green gas/biomethane offerings. Comparable to MaxEnergy in residential gas supply but operating at metropolitan scale and as a heat-network utility.
Emerging players
- Tibber Germany: Norwegian digital energy supplier with German operations, offering dynamic-tariff electricity and smart-home integration to residential customers. Comparable to MaxEnergy in the digital-first, tech-enabled residential supply model but differentiated by real-time pricing.
- Octopus Energy Germany: UK-founded, venture-backed green energy retailer now operating in Germany with dynamic pricing and tech-led customer experience. Targets the same digitally native, eco-conscious German residential customer as MaxEnergy but with substantially greater funding and brand recognition.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat3 records
Key risks7 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
MaxEnergy social profiles
Digital presenceMaxEnergy financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
MaxEnergy leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles10 records
MaxEnergy funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
MaxEnergy M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about MaxEnergy
What does MaxEnergy do?
MaxEnergy supplies 100% renewable electricity and natural gas to residential households in Germany and Austria through subscription-based green-energy tariffs (MAX Basic, MAX Safety with 24-month price guarantee, MAX Ocean with ocean cleanup, combined electricity+gas, and heat pump-specific tariffs). Customers sign up and switch providers entirely online via an AI-powered bill-upload and tariff-comparison platform, with no contract duration binding.
Is MaxEnergy a public or private company?
MaxEnergy is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently operating.
When was MaxEnergy founded?
MaxEnergy was founded in 2008. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is MaxEnergy based?
MaxEnergy is headquartered in Augsburg, Germany, in the Europe region.
How does MaxEnergy make money?
Five revenue lines are on record. Electricity Supply Contracts are the primary driver. The others are gas Supply Contracts, heat Pump Tariffs, referral Program (Freunde werben Freunde) and solar/Photovoltaic Referrals.
Who are MaxEnergy's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Naturstrom AG, Lichtblick SE, Yello Strom GmbH and eprimo GmbH. Otovo ASA is listed as an others. Broad incumbents are E.ON SE, EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG and GASAG AG. Emerging players are Tibber Germany and Octopus Energy Germany.
Does MaxEnergy have an API?
No public API is recorded for MaxEnergy.
What industry is MaxEnergy in?
MaxEnergy's product category is Residential Energy Supply. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EUAGADAJ, Green Tariffs & Utility Renewable Supply Programs, with a secondary code of EUAAADAA, Regulated Natural Gas Utility (LDC) Customer Acquisition & Switching. Its NAICS code is 22 and its SIC code is 4923.