Few sectors are evolving as quickly — or as unpredictably — as the energy sector. Every fifteen minutes brings new data, new demands, new pressure. For verity.global, though, that speed is an opportunity. From within the Wintercircus Startup Campus, the company develops the technology it believes will redefine how energy companies operate, calculate, and engage with their customers.

Companies at the Wintercircus Startup Campus come in all shapes and sizes, and that diversity is exactly why Verity wanted in. “A spin-off from a global player like Itineris, with roughly 45 employees already, isn’t what most people would call a startup,” admits Verity's managing director Stijn Degrieck. “Even though we are building a new, innovative technology — entirely from scratch.”

Still, the team insisted on developing that technology from within the Wintercircus because, even after years of groundwork, they also want to develop and nurture a true startup mentality. “We want to keep thinking like a startup,” Stijn says, “and surround ourselves with other startups that can influence our culture and genuinely inspire us.”

Or as HR strategist Catherine Vandeweghe candidly admits: “If we had stayed under the Itineris umbrella, we would have quickly and almost inevitably adopted a corporate culture. But we’re doing something very different, and being here reminds us of that every day. It gives us the freedom to sharpen, shape, and grow our own identity.”

Verity's value proposition hinges on accuracy and reliability The fact that Verity is yet one more energy company in the Startup Campus is hardly an issue. “In any sector, there’s always some overlap,” says Stijn. “We’d rather look at how we can help each other than see each other as competitors.” He explains that exchanging experiences and insights with those other energy startups only accelerates the intellectual momentum of the ecosystem. “And ultimately, we all believe — ourselves included — that each of us is building a strong and pivotal product in our own way.”

At the heart of Verity’s product is Mohamed Achahbar, who has spent over twenty years in the energy sector and has witnessed it become increasingly buzzing. “Of course, a lot has changed in those two decades,” he points out. “Wind, solar, batteries, the electrification of the car market — twenty years ago, those were topics for conferences, not everyday consumers. But now they’ve reached households, with people’s consumption being measured every fifteen minutes, instead of once a year. That’s an incredibly rapid shift, and energy companies have no other option but to respond with new products and new pricing models.”

And that is exactly where Verity steps in. “At Itineris, we saw the energy market becoming increasingly granular,” Mohamed explains. “If we wanted to stay competitive, we needed to engage far more deeply with data — right down to the quarter-hour. With a company in the US, we launched a pilot to experiment with dynamic pricing based on near-real-time data at multiple levels. The technology we developed for that project outperformed all expectations — and that’s how Verity was born.”

Stijn Degrieck: "The existing software used by energy companies can't keep pace with innovation, our platform can" The name is a statement, says Stijn Degrieck. The company’s entire value proposition hinges on accuracy and reliability. Utility providers such as Engie or Luminus need that level of trust, but so do grid operators and ultimately even consumers. “With the price of energy becoming increasingly unpredictable, energy companies are looking to reduce their costs,” Stijn says, “and increase their margins. At the same time, they must keep the grid balanced and provide customers with clear insight into their consumption — or they risk losing them to a competitor. All of that requires an enormous volume of calculations. We make those calculations fully accessible through a 100% cloud-native platform, because the existing software used by energy companies simply can’t keep pace with innovation. Our platform can.”

Verity, headquartered at the Wintercircus Startup Campus since July, is currently focused on building its platform, while already serving prominent clients such as French distribution system operator Enedis or the water utility company of Georgetown, Texas. “Right now, our focus is on Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, the UK, and the US,” says Stijn. “That already gives us plenty of variables: in Europe, the conversation revolves around sustainability, while in the US, the priority is grid stability.”

“But eventually we want to expand far beyond those regions,” Mohamed Achahbar adds. “And the platform itself still has a lot of room to grow, too. Today, we’ve essentially built a massive calculator. In the future, Verity should also handle invoicing and other processes. In short: everything that involves numbers.”

Catherine Vandeweghe: "Wintercircus makes it unbelievably easy to be inspired every single day" And if it were up to Catherine Vandeweghe, Verity would keep growing from inside the Wintercircus for as long as possible. “You have no idea how easy it is to attract the right talent here,” she says. “We’re not just looking for people with the expertise — we’re looking for people who are open to new ideas and want to be inspired every single day. And this environment makes that unbelievably easy.”

Even a seasoned veteran like Mohamed feels it. “I spent most of my career in big corporate offices, so it’s amazing to see the energy of this place — all these small companies, each wrestling with their own challenges and passionately building their dreams. But what surprises me most is that, despite those individual challenges, everyone still takes the time to help out when another company has a problem or question. I’ve never seen that anywhere else — and it’s infectious.”