GridWe, a Kyiv-based smart metering startup, has won the Red Dot Design Award 2026, one of the most prestigious honors in industrial design, for a line of modems that turn legacy gas meters into remote-reading devices. The company has invested nearly €8 million to build its own production facility and is now preparing to enter the EU market.
The award recognizes GridWe’s G Module S, H, and M modems, developed together with Ukrainian transformational marketing, strategic branding, and creative agency Lion & Mosquito. The devices convert analog gas meters into remote-reading systems, letting utilities and consumers track resource consumption without manual readings.
Remote metering is fast becoming standard practice across Europe, and Ukraine is starting to catch up. Amid the energy challenges of recent years and the country’s push to integrate with the EU energy system, companies like GridWe are helping bring its infrastructure closer to European standards.
“Many manufacturers simply buy ready-made solutions from China. We made a deliberate choice to build our own production in Kyiv, because it lets us develop new products faster and keep tighter control over quality. Winning the Red Dot confirms that Ukrainian hardware can compete, both technologically and in industrial design,” says Samvel Akobyan, co-founder of GridWe.
Akobyan adds that GridWe operates as an independent business while also serving as the technological foundation for the company’s next generation of hardware products.
Key facts
- Total investment in GridWe has reached nearly €8 million. The company’s full-cycle production facility, spanning 3,000 square meters, is located in Kyiv.
- Founded in 2024, GridWe partners with major Ukrainian mobile operators to roll out NB-IoT technology nationwide.
- Since the start of 2026, the company has produced more than 40,000 modems.
- The G Module S, H, and M modems enable remote reading from existing analog gas meters made by leading manufacturers, including Pietro Fiorentini, Samgas, Metrix, Honeywell, and Elster.
- The Red Dot was awarded in the Industrial Design category. Lion & Mosquito developed four concepts for the product line, and the winning design was chosen for its suitability for mass production at a scale of hundreds of thousands of units per year.
- GridWe is currently undergoing product certification ahead of its entry into the EU market.
Context
The Red Dot Design Award is an annual international design prize established in 1954. Past winners include Apple, Ferrari, and fellow Ukrainian company Ajax Systems.
