Cleanwatts

About Cleanwatts

Cleanwatts, a climate tech company founded in 2020 and headquartered in Coimbra, Portugal, is strategically positioned to accelerate the local energy transition. The company was co-founded by Michael Pinto, Luísa Matos, James McDougall, and Basílio Simões. This founding team combines extensive experience in corporate leadership, finance, and deep technological expertise in energy systems. Pinto has over two decades of executive experience in Fortune 50 companies across various sectors, while Simões is a serial entrepreneur with a Ph.D. in Technological Physics and a history of founding tech companies like ISA. Matos is an economist with senior management experience in green and digital transformation, and McDougall brings 30 years of experience in commercializing disruptive energy technologies.

The firm operates on an Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) model, removing the primary barrier of high upfront costs for its clients. It develops, finances, and manages Renewable Energy Communities (RECs), serving a diverse client base that includes commercial and industrial businesses, municipalities, schools, and residential communities. By offering distributed energy resources like solar PV, storage, and EV charging infrastructure with zero initial investment, Cleanwatts enables its partners to significantly reduce energy costs—by up to 60%—and meet decarbonization goals. Revenue is generated through long-term service contracts for managing these local energy ecosystems.

At the core of its operations is the Cleanwatts™ OS, a modular and interoperable software platform. This proprietary technology manages the entire energy lifecycle within a community, connecting and optimizing consumption, generation, and storage. The platform functions both 'behind-the-meter' for consumer-side optimization and 'front-of-the-meter' to provide grid-balancing services, effectively functioning as a Virtual Power Plant (VPP). A key milestone was the inauguration of Portugal's first REC in August 2021. Since its inception, Cleanwatts has secured significant funding, including a Series A round, to fuel its expansion into markets like Italy, Spain, and the United States.