Lucy Group, the Oxford-based owner of power distribution business Lucy Electric, said on April 2, 2026, that it had completed the acquisition of all the shares in Nuventura GmbH, a Berlin company that makes gas-insulated switchgear without sulphur hexafluoride (SF6).
The price was not disclosed. Van Lanschot Kempen acted as Nuventura's sole financial adviser and said it had run a competitive process among strategic buyers to find a partner for the company's next stage of growth.
Nuventura will become part of Lucy Electric, the group's low- and medium-voltage power distribution unit. Lucy said the deal takes its SF6-free technology into primary switchgear and extends its reach in continental Europe.
What Nuventura built
Switchgear is the equipment that switches, protects and isolates parts of an electricity network. For decades gas-insulated switchgear has used SF6, which Silicon Canals, citing Nuventura, described as having 25,200 times the global warming effect of carbon dioxide.
Nuventura, founded in Berlin in 2017, designed switchgear that uses dry air instead. Lucy said it was the first company to bring a 36kV dry-air gas-insulated switchgear to market, and that it later developed a 24kV version for medium-voltage use. Its patented design covers the circuit breaker and a three-position disconnector, is built for SF6-free applications up to 36kV and, according to Lucy, keeps working even when the gas pressure inside falls to zero.
The company does not sell only under its own name. It works through partners, including equipment makers, engineering contractors and project developers, who can take its products, license its technology or customise it to different degrees.
“The switchgear market is undergoing the most fundamental technology shift for decades.”
Why Lucy Group is buying
Regulation is pushing utilities away from SF6. Under EU rules on fluorinated gases, new switchgear up to 24kV must be SF6-free from January 2026, and the ban extends to equipment from 24kV to 52kV by 2030. Lucy also pointed to decentralisation, decarbonisation and digitalisation as forces changing how electricity networks are built and run.
Lucy Electric has been working on SF6-free equipment of its own. Its chief executive, John Griffiths, noted that in 2024 the company was named Utility Partner of the Year for its work with UK Power Networks on the UK's first medium-voltage 12kV SF6-free ring main unit. He said Nuventura would take that expertise into primary switchgear and help grid operators cut emissions from their infrastructure as they work toward net zero.
Manjunath Ramesh, Nuventura's joint managing director and chief technology officer, said that joining Lucy Electric would let the company scale up and offer a wider range of environmentally friendly products for different industries around the world.
The founders and the funding
Nuventura was founded by Manjunath Ramesh, Fabian Lemke and Nikolaus Thomale. In September 2023 it raised a €25 million (about $27 million) Series A round led by Mirova, the sustainable investment arm of Natixis Investment Managers, through its Mirova Environment Acceleration Capital fund. Forward.one and the EIC Fund joined as new investors, and existing backers IBB Ventures, ADB Ventures, Cycle Group, Future Energy Ventures and DOEN Participaties also took part.
That round brought the company's total funding to more than €35 million (about $38 million), according to Silicon Canals. At the time Nuventura said it would use the money to widen its product range and expand manufacturing. Lemke, then chief executive, said the company's dry-air technology was in the right place at the right time. Neither company disclosed Nuventura's headcount.
What happens next
The EU deadlines give grid operators a fixed timetable for moving off SF6, and Lucy said the shift to alternatives was speeding up as the new rules took effect across Europe. With Nuventura, Lucy Electric adds primary switchgear to SF6-free work that had included the 12kV ring main unit built with UK Power Networks, and gains a Berlin-based team and partner network in continental Europe.
Lucy did not say whether the Nuventura brand would be kept or how its partnership model would fit with Lucy Electric's own sales channels. Ramesh described the deal as the next chapter in Nuventura's growth and said the market was going through its most fundamental technology change in decades.
