In 2017, three professionals from very different corners of finance and energy set out to build a business betting that, in a world of wind turbines and solar panels, batteries would be the missing piece of the energy transition.

James Basden had spent over 20 years advising the boards of major power and utility companies, while co-founder, Steven Meersman had spent nearly two decades between battery and traded energy commodity markets. Together they set up Zenobē, alongside Nicholas Beatty, a corporate financier with nearly three decades of experience who then retired in 2024.

Rather than simply building battery projects and selling them on, Zenobē chose to own and operate its assets for the long term, pairing grid-scale battery storage with a second business financing and running electric vehicle fleets for bus and truck operators. That vertically integrated model helped Zenobē become the largest owner and operator of electric buses in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, working with around 90 per cent of the UK’s major bus companies and powering roughly a quarter of the UK’s e-bus market.

Since its launch, Zenobē has raised over £3.2bn in debt and equity funding, with operations in Europe, Australasia and North America. Today, Basden leads the Network Infrastructure business, while Meersman leads the EV team. Both work alongside CEO Donald Weir.

“We have a unique opportunity,” Basden told our podcast in 2025, “for a carbon-free electricity, power network and transport system that our children and grandchildren will benefit from.”