Azteq Energy: A fresh start with new leadership, stronger governance and financial backing
Azteq is back. In mid-January 2025 Alain Robic (left), together with Jan Braeckmans and two other partners, founded the Azteq Energy company headquartered in Belgium. With the support of several investors they acquired essential assets from the former Azteq, which filed for bankruptcy in mid-December 2024. The founders intend to restart the company with a similar business model but stronger financial resources and a new leadership team. The employees of the former German and Spanish subsidiaries have joined them with new contracts and been offered a stake in the new company. The new team is now working hard to make the highly developed projects of the former Azteq a reality. Photos: Azteq Energy
Robic and Braeckmans were both involved in the former Azteq and will share the lead at Azteq Energy with Robic as CEO. He will focus on the business development of the new company. He has already done so in France by promoting Concentrated Solar Thermal (CST) technology to industrial groups and government bodies such as the French energy agency ADEME. Robic trained as a mechanical engineer and has strong international management experience at Nexans, where he spent a large part of his career. His expertise complements that of his co-founder Jan Braeckmans, who is an experienced lawyer/restructuring specialist and has been advising the Azteq founders and management team since 2016 in various roles.
Azteq’s investors back on board
“The former Azteq was insufficiently resourced and capitalized; it suffered from a lack of governance and when the banks lost trust, bankruptcy was unavoidable”, said Robic, looking back on turbulent times. The two former founders of Azteq, Koen Vermout and Kari Ven, are not involved in the new company.
Despite this incident, some major investors from the former Azteq confirmed their continued interest. “Our most important condition for the restart was to mobilize sufficient funding”, explained Braeckmans. And the new founders were successful. According to their own statements, they raised more seed money in the first three months than the former Azteq had available in the first 3 to 4 years after it was founded.
“The investors believe that the main fundamentals are still very strong, e.g. the increasing demand for sustainable energy and the enormous market potential of CST for industrial applications. Additionally, the proven technology fits perfectly into the European and global climate agenda for decarbonization of the energy sector”, said Robic. He wants to continue offering carbon-free high-temperature heat solutions for industrial clients. These turnkey solutions are primarily based on CST, which is the core technology of Azteq Energy. “Our flexible business model offers tailored EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction), HPA (Heat-Purchase Agreements), and O&M (Operations & Maintenance) contracts, providing custom solutions from CST-only to fully integrated systems, for example including thermal storage, e-boilers etc.”, according to Robic.
The company founders do not wish to disclose the names of the investors. However, they are already announcing the series A funding, which should be completed by the end of this year. They confirm that they have acquired all the assets they were interested in from the former Azteq and that they are fully operational now.
Challenging negotiations with customers of the former Azteq
The good financial situation from the beginning has made it possible to take on the employees of the former subsidiaries in Germany and Spain. Azteq Energy has started with a team of ten people and will continue to grow. “The employees of the former Solarlite in Germany and in Spain have an estimated cumulated 80 years of professional experience in the field of concentrated solar heat”, said Robic, describing this as an important success factor for the new company.
“We have an incentive programme that aims to enhance the engagement of our staff and align their efforts with our corporate strategic goals. Some of them have also accepted the offer to become shareholders in the new company”. What’s new here: Azteq Energy no longer has any national subsidiaries. Everyone is employed at the headquarters in Belgium, which creates a lean and efficient structure, according to the founders.
As a first step in the resource plan to sustain the expected growth, Guus Kessler has joined the company as the new COO, bringing a wealth of international experience in industrial project management.
The challenge for the new team is now to negotiate with the customers of the former Azteq to continue the on-going project developments. “We have acquired the project subsidiary companies (SPVs – Special Purpose Vehicles) in Spain, France and Australia that were holding the contracts and subsidies for SHIP projects there”, confirmed Braeckmans.
The acquisition in Spain are linked to two separate projects; the main one consists of a 40 MW concentrated solar plant including daily and seasonal storage, for which IDAE – the Spanish Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving has already made a funding commitment. The challenge here is the short timeframe prescribed by IDAE for the realization of the project.
In France, a first 5 MW project concerns a dairy food processor. In Australia and Mexico the negotiations with former Azteq clients are still ongoing .
The Azteq Energy team is building strong partnerships across the value-creation chain. They will continue working with Huiyin Energy from China as the supplier of the parabolic trough collectors. “Huiyin is our strategic partner and it was important for us to secure this relationship”, confirmed Robic. “We are ready to grow, operate successfully and provide our industrial customers with a sustainable and affordable energy supply.”
Websites of organizations mentioned in this news article:
Huiyin Energy; http://huiyin-group.com/eindex.aspx
Azteq Energy: http://www.azteq.energy
IDAE: https://www.idae.es/en
ADEME: https://www.ademe.fr/en/frontpage/
