London, UK — Gyre Energy, the Oxford-founded energy tech company using AI and thermal energy storage to cut the cost and energy demand of industrial cooling, has secured over $1.3m in investment and grant funding as it expands work with larger enterprise customers.
The pre-seed round, led by Speedinvest with participation from rule30 and Plug and Play, has funded Gyre’s growth into large-scale cold chain environments including one of the world’s largest logistics companies responsible for moving and storing temperature-sensitive goods across global supply chains.*
Gyre will install its AI-driven cooling optimisation and thermal energy storage platform within a chamber of a 140,000 square foot cold chain operation, with performance measured against an IPMVP baseline. Gyre’s AI analyses how the site behaves, forecasts cooling demand, and optimises the system to cut overall energy use while maintaining temperature stability. Its thermal energy storage then stores cooling capacity when energy is cheaper and greener, releasing it during expensive peak periods so the equipment runs less when power costs most.
The deployment is Gyre’s most significant to date, its first with a global logistics leader, and comes as heatwaves across Europe and other regions place growing pressure on cold chains, buildings, power grids and cooling infrastructure.
The extreme temperatures are driving higher demand for cooling technologies and pushing up electricity use, with the International Energy Agency (IEA) warning that cooling demand is already straining power grids around the world. Global electricity demand is expected to grow around 50% faster over 2026 to 2030 than the previous decade, driven by HVAC, data centres and electrification; the very loads Gyre’s platform is built to optimise.
Dougald Coulson, co-founder and CEO of Gyre Energy, said: “Cooling already accounts for around a fifth of global electricity demand, and it’s rapidly growing. For the operators we work with, energy is one of their largest costs and cooling is the part they’ve had the least control over. What’s really resonating with our customers is that the same infrastructure that has historically been a cost line can become an energy asset. Working with one of the world’s largest logistics operators gives us the opportunity to prove that approach in one of the most demanding cold chain environments in the world.”
Gyre Energy has already demonstrated the commercial impact of its platform with a large UK chilled and frozen distribution business with a nationwide depot network. In its first published commercial deployment, Gyre cut electricity costs by 38% and daily energy consumption by 35%, with a payback period under 1.5 years, at a 2,900 sq ft frozen cold storage facility.
The company’s approach allows cold storage operators and industrial cooling operators to optimise cooling performance without major infrastructure replacement. As cooling demand rises across the economy, Gyre Energy sees future applications beyond cold storage, including data centres, where operators face increasing pressure to control energy use, manage heat and maintain uptime as AI workloads grow.
Alex Davis, Investor at Speedinvest, said: “Cooling is one of the most fundamental and overlooked problems in the energy transition, and Gyre is tackling it head on. This is AI applied to the real world, delivering real outcomes in the shape of lower energy consumption and more resilient supply chains. In the twelve months since we invested, Dougald, Tom, Mike and the team have executed exceptionally, moving from proven first commercial deployment to working with one of the world’s most sophisticated cold chain operators. Gyre is building a core layer of the energy stack of the future, and we’re delighted to be on this journey with a team that is global by nature and unbounded in its ambition.”
Gyre Energy was founded by Dougald Coulson (CEO), Michael McKenna (CTO) and Tom Gibson (COO). All three are Oxford MBAs with backgrounds in machine learning, energy systems and energy technology commercialisation.
Following its early backing, Gyre Energy is now preparing for its next phase of commercial growth, with a focus on larger customer deployments across cold storage, food logistics, industrial cooling and future data centre applications.
The company was recently named a SXSW London Venture Spotlight winner (2nd place), has been selected as a MIT Climate Solver (from nearly 2,900 organisations globally) and awarded multiple Innovate UK grants.
*The customer cannot be named at this stage due to commercial confidentiality, but the project marks Gyre’s first enterprise-scale deployment with a global logistics operator.
• Oxford-founded startup combines physics-based AI with thermal energy storage to cut electricity costs by 38% at first commercial deployment
• A proven breakthrough in cooling optimisation: physics-grounded control paired with low-cost thermal storage
• Platform deployed across sites in the UK, Africa, and the Caribbean with a growing global pipeline
London, UK — Gyre Energy today announced results from its first commercial deployment at a 2,900 square foot frozen cold storage facility operated by a major food distributor in the UK. The cooling platform, which combines physics-based AI and thermal energy storage, delivered a 38% reduction in electricity costs and a 35% reduction in daily energy consumption. Results were validated using the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP), the global standard for energy savings verification. In addition, Gyre Energy’s system was able to improve temperature stability at the facility by 91%, enabling protection of product while decreasing energy costs.
Cooling accounts for up to 20% of global electricity demand, and the International Energy Agency (IEA) projects demand will triple by 2050, driven by food logistics growth, data centre expansion, and a warming climate. In cold storage, cooling represents up to 90% of site energy demand. Yet facilities worldwide are running on ageing infrastructure and manual, inflexible cooling strategies that leave significant energy efficiency savings untapped.
Gyre Energy’s platform combines physics-based AI with thermal energy storage to optimise cooling infrastructure. The AI draws on energy market and operational cooling data to model each cold room individually, continuously optimising equipment runtime and energy consumption. Gyre Energy installs thermal storage onto existing pallet racking systems inside warehouses. The thermal storage charges with cold energy, and discharges, reducing how often the equipment needs to run, cutting both equipment runtime and electricity costs without taking up any additional space. Critically, the system maintains strict temperature stability throughout, reducing the risk of product loss and ensuring goods remain within required thermal limits. The platform can be rapidly installed without major electrical retrofit and delivers a payback period of under 18 months.
Gyre Energy was founded in 2024 by three Oxford MBAs with backgrounds in machine learning, energy systems and clean technology commercialisation. The team of nine includes AI and ML PhDs from Oxford and Limerick Universities, refrigeration and controls engineers, and commercial specialists. The company was selected as a MIT Climate Solver (from nearly 2,900 organisations globally), was a winner of the OxBridge AI Challenge (from over 220 startups), is listed on the SET100 top energy startups in 2026 and has been awarded multiple Innovate UK grants. The company collaborates with the University of Oxford’s Department of Engineering and have filed two US patents covering optimisation algorithms for refrigeration and thermal storage control.
With these results validated, Gyre Energy is now deploying across 15 cold storage sites in the UK, Africa, and the Caribbean, with a growing pipeline in the Middle East, Asia Pacific, US and continental Europe. The company is actively engaging with grocery retailers and logistics providers globally. The same underlying technology is directly applicable to commercial buildings and data centres, where cooling can account for up to 40% of total energy demand. Gyre Energy is in early discussions with operators in these complementary sectors.
Gyre Energy is an energy technology company cutting energy costs and emissions from cooling. Founded in 2024 by three Oxford MBAs, the company combines physics-based AI with thermal energy storage to optimise cooling for cold storage, logistics, grocery retail, and other cooling-intensive commercial facilities. Gyre’s platform is deployed across the UK, Africa, and the Caribbean, with expansion underway in the Middle East, Asia Pacific, and Europe.
Media Contact: contact@gyreenergy.com | www.gyreenergy.com
