# Jon Kornik

> Jon Kornik is the South African co-founder and CEO of Plentify, a Cape Town- and United States-based energy technology company that connects household appliances to cheaper, cleaner electricity. After working across management consulting, carbon finance, social venture capital and Google's clean-energy business in Africa, he founded Plentify in 2017. Its hardware-and-software platform coordinates flexible household loads such as electric water heaters, solar systems and batteries, turning ordinary homes into participants in a more responsive electricity system.

- **Role:** Co-Founder and CEO at Plentify
- **Organizations:** Plentify, Google, South Pole Carbon Asset Management, Selador Capital, McKinsey & Company
- **Nationality:** South African
- **Education:** Bachelor of Business Science, University of Cape Town, Master's in Finance, University of Cape Town, MBA in Social Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, Columbia Business School
- **Known for:** Led Google's clean-energy work in Africa, including financing large wind and solar photovoltaic projects and developing energy-access products., Selected as a 2016 Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellow., Selected as a 2017 Echoing Green Climate Fellow.

## Career timeline

- **2006** — Began working as a business analyst at McKinsey & Company.
- **2008** — Started Selador Capital, a social venture capital firm, and established the Sub-Saharan Africa office for South Pole Carbon Asset Management.
- **2011-2016** — Worked at Google on energy and sustainability, later leading energy access and investment work in Africa.
- **2016** — Named an Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellow.
- **2017** — Founded Plentify and became an Echoing Green Climate Fellow.
- **2024** — Plentify closed a 50% oversubscribed investment round to expand in South Africa and begin international growth.
- **2025** — Plentify closed an oversubscribed Series A, bringing total capital raised to nearly $15 million.

## Achievements

- Led Google's clean-energy work in Africa, including financing large wind and solar photovoltaic projects and developing energy-access products.
- Selected as a 2016 Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellow.
- Selected as a 2017 Echoing Green Climate Fellow.
- Received a SOCAP Social Entrepreneur Scholarship in 2017.
- Was part of the team that won the Water track at the 2017 UNLEASH Innovation Lab.
- Built Plentify into a full-stack energy technology company developing hardware, firmware, data science, back-end and front-end software in South Africa.
- Led Plentify through an oversubscribed 2025 Series A that brought total capital raised to nearly $15 million.

## Latest updates

- **2025-11** — Plentify announced an oversubscribed Series A led by Secha Capital, Buffet Investments and a South African family office, with total capital raised reaching nearly $15 million.
- **2025-08** — Kornik and co-founder Kailas Nair appeared on The Founder Files to discuss Plentify's origin, product development, fundraising, co-founder dynamics and international plans.
- **2025-08** — Kornik and Nair discussed Plentify's demand-side approach and African expansion on the Unlocking Africa podcast.
- **2025-05** — Kornik spoke at Enlit Africa on smart energy management and resilient, renewable-powered grids.
- **2025-04** — Kornik and Nair appeared on eNCA's Founders Legacy to discuss building and scaling Plentify.
- **2025-02** — Kornik spoke at Columbia Business School about deploying IoT and machine-learning solutions to improve the electric grid.

## Links

- Website: https://plentify.io/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-kornik-66b9b410/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/jon-kornik
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-18