Case Study: Irene Energy achieves secure, scalable electricity delivery with IBM Cloud Data Shield

Irene Energy embraces confidential computing to safely deliver electricity

Irene Energy, a France-based energy startup, set out to make electricity more affordable and accessible in remote parts of Africa, but needed a secure, scalable back-office platform for micropayments, wallet management, and blockchain-based transactions. The company’s challenge was to protect sensitive data and private keys in the cloud while keeping costs low enough for underserved communities and energy providers.

IBM helped Irene Energy build this platform using IBM Cloud, IBM Cloud Bare Metal Servers with Intel SGX, and IBM Cloud Data Shield. The solution enabled confidential computing, simplified SGX-compatible app development, and supported scalable Kubernetes-based growth; as a result, Irene Energy said development was accelerated by about six months, and the company expanded to five African countries with 40,000–50,000 users on the system.

Irene Energy

Guillaume Marchand

Founder