A company that participated in Techstars has secured a major deal with a local entity and will be relocating to Birmingham.
HData, formerly located in Joliet, Illinois, is a company that delivers compliance for the energy sector and beyond. Its mission is to digitize the interface between the public and private sectors. The company’s platform allows electric utilities, gas utilities and oil pipelines to automate compliance with federal reporting requirements and delivers business intelligence to those respective customers.
The company has a strategic partnership with Alabama Power. HData will provide business intelligence including peer comparisons and financial insights from regulatory data to all Alabama Power offices on a yearly basis. But the deal goes another step further, according to HData CEO Hudson Hollister. Throughout 2022, Alabama Power and HData will work closely together to design a new business intelligence tool dubbed HData Insights.
“We have benefited from two very important steps by Alabama Power. Number one, Alabama Power has purchased an enterprise license for our existing business intelligence tools,” Hollister said. “And number two, Alabama Power has entered into this partnership with us to design the next point that doesn't even exist. So, it's both current value for us and future value.”
The deal is only part of the reason for the company headquarters location in the Magic City. Hollister said the company also wants to take advantage of the city’s vibrant startup ecosystem.
The 10-person company plans to make some additions onto its team, which includes hiring local talent. HData plans to make14 hires over the next few months in sales, development and project management.
Hollister is bullish on hiring locally and believes the talent he needs to build out HData is in Birmingham currently.
“I'm convinced that many of the team members we need to recruit... are in Birmingham now. We're talking to many in Birmingham people right now,” he said. “The Birmingham tech scene is vibrant and active, it's got dozens and dozens of companies and two unicorns, multiple accelerators and incubators. This means that it's possible for an early-stage tech company to focus on Birmingham for recruiting and really benefit.”
The company will be operating out Techstars’s space in the Denham Building but leaders will look for permanent office space next year.
The company has also secured $3.1 million in seed funding led by Chicago-based Hyde Park Venture Partners and co-led by Firebrand Ventures, based in Boulder, Colorado, Austin and Kansas City. Firebrand Ventures partner John Fein will join HData’s board of directors.
