• GridBeyond

  Participated · Debt Financing · Oct 2022

  GridBeyond develops hardware and software to coordinate distributed energy resources—solar, wind, batteries, hydropower—and flexible industrial and commercial loads to operate as virtual power plants. The company manages approximately 1 gigawatt of generation and storage and several gigawatts of demand-side flexibility, including a 200-megawatt battery installation in California. GridBeyond’s controllers and software are deployed across sites in Australia, Ireland, Japan, the UK, and the United States. Its platform enables rapid response and market participation, allowing batteries and flexible loads to perform grid balancing and power arbitrage. The company is using the newly raised €12 million equity to expand its portfolio of managed assets and deployments.

• Autogrid

  Participated · Series D · Oct 2021

  AutoGrid Systems offers an AI-driven Virtual Power Plant software platform, AutoGrid Flex, that predicts, optimizes and provides real-time control of millions of distributed energy assets including EVs, batteries, rooftop solar and utility-scale wind. The Flex platform leverages spare capacity from batteries, electric vehicles and flexible loads to smooth short-term imbalances while providing economic incentives to asset owners. Led by founder and CEO Dr. Amit Narayan, the company combines software and services to enable optimization and monetization for independent power producers, energy-as-a-service firms, retailers and project developers. AutoGrid plans to expand Flex’s capabilities and accelerate global deployment, while building a services organization as a “one-stop-shop” for customers. The company has established a 24×7 Network Operations Center and intends to offer full market participation services across major U.S. ISOs in preparation for changes tied to FERC Order 2222. Financially, AutoGrid completed a new equity financing to support corporate growth and share repurchases. AutoGrid builds AI-powered software, primarily its AutoGrid Flex Virtual Power Plant (VPP) platform, to manage distributed energy resources (DERs) in real time at scale. The company is expanding Flex to scale real-time co-optimization up to 100,000 assets and to add enhanced electric vehicle (EV) fleet management capabilities. AutoGrid supports the buildout of what it says is the world’s largest VPP by asset volume in Japan with local partner ENERES. The company reports over 5,000 MW of assets under contract and experience managing DERs in 12 countries. AutoGrid was awarded a $2.25 million ARPA-E grant to fund these expansions and previously received $3.5 million from ARPA-E’s GENI program in 2012. AutoGrid Flex was ranked the #1 Virtual Power Plant Platform globally in the 2020 Guidehouse Insights ranking. AutoGrid provides a suite of flexibility management applications, including its Energy Internet Platform and AutoGrid Flex, that enable utilities, retailers, developers and service providers to manage distributed energy resources (DERs) in real time and at scale. Led by CEO Dr. Amit Narayan, the company employs AI-driven predictive controls to orchestrate connected, distributed and flexible energy assets. AutoGrid reports more than 5,000 megawatts of DERs under contract with customers such as Xcel Energy, National Grid, E.ON, CPS Energy, Total, NextEra Energy and over 35 other energy companies worldwide. The company intends to use the new funding to accelerate global deployment of its Energy Internet Platform and AutoGrid Flex. The recent investment was an equity extension to its Series D. AutoGrid is headquartered in Redwood City, California. Led by Dr. Amit Narayan, AutoGrid builds software applications that use artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data and IoT to optimize and control energy systems. Its core product, the AutoGrid Flex™ platform, manages networked distributed energy resources (DERs) in real time and at scale. The company reports more than 3,500 megawatts of flexible capacity from DERs under contract and serves customers including National Grid, NextEra Energy, E.ON, Total, Xcel Energy, China Light and Power and over 30 other global energy companies. AutoGrid plans to use new capital to hire in energy, AI, big data and IoT to develop capacity for large-scale grid modernization and digital transformation projects worldwide. It also intends to accelerate commercial deployment of AutoGrid Flex across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Financially, the company has raised $75M to date, including the recent Series D. AutoGrid offers a suite of Energy Internet software applications built on the AutoGrid Energy Data Platform (EDP) with patented Predictive Controls technology. Its platform leverages petabytes of smart meter, sensor and third-party data plus data science and high-performance computing to monitor, predict, optimize and control millions of assets. AutoGrid’s applications enable utilities, retailers, renewable developers and energy service providers to manage DERs in real time, improve reliability, engage customers and reduce operating expenses. The company reported 100% year‑over‑year growth in annual recurring revenue and a 350% increase in distributed energy resources under contract in 2015. Customers include leading energy companies such as E.ON, Bonneville Power Administration, Florida Power & Light, Southern California Edison and NextEra Energy. AutoGrid has received industry recognition including Bloomberg New Energy Pioneer 2016 and World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer 2015.

• Freyr Energy

  Participated · Equity · Apr 2021

  Freyr Energy is a Hyderabad-based rooftop solar company that oversees the entire process of designing, acquiring, and installing rooftop solar systems. The company sells and implements rooftop solar solutions and manages system performance end to end. According to the company press release, proceeds from the recent round will be used to expand the team, advance product development, and increase marketing. Freyr disclosed a Series B equity infusion of Rs 58 crore ($7 million) in the most recent financing. In April 2021 the startup previously received equity investments totaling Rs 18 crore from Total Carbon Neutrality Ventures, Schneider Electric Energy Access Asia, and C4D Partners. No operating metrics (revenue or user counts) were disclosed in the article. Freyr Energy uses a proprietary software environment and the SunPro+ customer app to digitalise the rooftop solar customer journey for homeowners and MSMEs. SunPro+ is designed to simplify acquisition, financing, execution and after-sales service, making ownership of a solar system simple and seamless. The company announced an equity investment of ₹18 crore to accelerate growth and enhance customer experience. Investors praised the SunPro+ platform as a key success factor that can ease rooftop customer acquisition and management. Freyr intends to scale its rooftop offering and contribute to mass-market solar adoption while creating employment opportunities within its vendor network. Strategic backers are expected to provide not only capital but global energy-sector experience to support expansion. Freyr Energy is a Hyderabad-based rooftop solar company that builds and deploys decentralized solar installations supported by a technology platform. The company says it will use new capital to improve its technology platform, expand its sales and channel partner network, and support marketing to accelerate growth in India and other major solar markets. Freyr has achieved 16X revenue growth over the last four years and has been profitable for the past two years. It has completed over 1,000 installations across 18 Indian states and serves customers in the USA, Nigeria and Ghana. Last year it secured seed funding from Doen-Participaties, a Netherlands-based investor, and is now pursuing broader international expansion supported by its platform and partner strategy.

• SHYFT Power Solutions

  Led · Seed · Apr 2021

  SHYFT Power Solutions develops IoT hardware and data-driven software to improve performance and operational efficiency of distributed energy resources in emerging markets. Its asset management solution uses algorithms to track, automate, and optimize property-level assets and grid connections while aggregating multiple data streams. The company was founded by Stanford engineers and has initially targeted Nigeria, where an inefficient grid has led to heavy reliance on generators. SHYFT recently raised additional seed funding and plans to use proceeds to double its West Africa team and improve AI capabilities for device optimization using its data and algorithms. The company also intends to form corporate alliances and expand into other African markets facing similar energy challenges. Its mission ties cleaner energy adoption to lower costs and reduced carbon emissions in underserved regions.

• Deep Branch Biotechnology

  Participated · Series A · Mar 2021

  Deep Branch develops CO2-to-protein technology to produce a single-cell protein ingredient called Proton for animal feed. The company received a £4.8 million grant from the UK government’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Net Zero Innovation Portfolio to fund the Deep Blue C project. Deep Blue C will integrate carbon capture and low-carbon hydrogen ecosystems and deliver a feasibility study for Deep Branch’s first commercial Proton production unit. Deep Branch completed an €8 million Series A last year. Proton is planned to go live in 2027, and the platform intends to roll out multiple production facilities targeting 600,000 tonnes per annum global capacity by 2030, utilising over one million tonnes of CO2 annually. The company positions Proton as a price-stable, price-competitive, nutritionally optimal bulk feed ingredient to improve sustainability in animal farming. Deep Branch is a British startup that converts CO2 into a bulk animal-feed protein ingredient called Proton, aimed at reducing emissions from livestock production. Proton is positioned as an environmentally friendlier, price-competitive and nutritionally suitable feed protein. The company’s technology is described as a scalable CO2-to-protein route that can supply stable, bulk protein for feed markets. The Series A financing will fund completion of a Scale-Up Hub at Brightlands Chemelot Campus to produce pilot-scale Proton batches for full nutritional validation with major European feed producers including BioMar and AB Agri, and to advance engineering design for a first commercial facility. Deep Branch previously secured about €4 million in non-dilutive, grant-backed financing scheduled between Q4 2020 and Q1 2023, and the new Series A totals €8 million. Management says it aims for commercial production by 2023, is mapping locations for its first plant (flagging Norway for its salmon industry and low-carbon hydrogen), and plans to expand its CO2-based product line into new markets.

No current team members are available.