Kraken licensed to first-ever broadband provider

Octopus Energy’s Kraken platform has been licensed to broadband provider Cuckoo.

It is the first time the customer service platform has been used in the telecom space.

The deal has been stuck within a year of Octopus launching its subsidiary Kraken Utilities, set up to take Kraken into markets beyond energy.

Launched in 2020, Cuckoo likens itself to the Octopus of the broadband world, with a self-professed “focus around customers, and calling for better industry standards”.

Deepak Ravindran, chief executive of Kraken Utilities, said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to sign Cuckoo as our first licensee in the Telecom industry.

“We see a lot of similarities in Octopus and Cuckoo – one has disrupted its sector, the other is about to – and both thanks to Kraken. Cuckoo customers are about to experience first class service.”

Cuckoo chief experience officer Tommy Toner added: “We set up Cuckoo in the depths of the pandemic because we had the burning drive to make the broadband experience better.

“We’ve grown quickly, but to drive real change, we need the tech prowess and operational expertise that Kraken will unlock. We’re delighted to be their first broadband client.”

Development work begins now, with the intention of starting to migrate Cuckoo customers to its own Kraken-enabled in-house tech platform in the next few months.

It comes following Kraken’s announcement last year that it would be expanding into other utility sectors such as water and broadband.

As part of the expansion, the company formed a new business, Kraken Utilities, led by Deepak Ravindran who was previously a senior partner and managing director at Boston Consulting Group.

Speaking at the time Greg Jackson, founder of Octopus Energy Group, said: “We’ve increasingly been approached by water companies, telcos and other utilities who saw the way that Kraken has transformed customer and employee experience in energy, whilst driving down costs and opening up whole new opportunities through technology and customer engagement.

“With forward-thinking utilities and regulators seeking to benefit from lower operating costs, better customer experience and exploiting whole new efficiencies through machine learning and big data, we’ve been working hard to expand Kraken from its revolutionary position in energy to offer these advantages across all utilities.”

As revealed by Utility Week in May, Portsmouth Water is also closing in on a deal to become the first water supplier to licence Kraken.