After announcing the closing of a fundraising round, a Houston-based software developer aims to hire.
Houston-based Molecule develops cloud-based software offerings for commodity traders, risk managers, hedge funds, private equity firms, energy informatics companies and other customers that trade power, gas, crude, refined products, chemicals and agriculture commodities. On May 6, the software-maker announced the close of a $12 million Series A funding round, which included an investment by Houston-based venture capital firm Mercury Fund.
Sameer Soleja, founder and CEO of Molecule, said the company plans to further develop Elektra, its software offerings catered to electricity traders, using proceeds from the Series A raise. Molecule noticed that among the variety of different customers using its platform to trade commodities, more than half were power customers. The company sees an opportunity to continue developing new functionality in the electricity space to better serve those clients, Soleja said.
"We see a lot of transition, even from our hydrocarbon-related customers, to electricity markets," Soleja said. "I think the general sense is everybody is looking at electricity as a key commodity in the 2020s, and we think we're better than anybody else at it."
Amid strong industrywide momentum to better track environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics, Soleja said Molecule aims to build out capabilities for trading renewables credits on its platform.
To accelerate the development of new features and capabilities with its ETRM/CTRM (energy trading risk management/commodities trading risk management) platform, Molecule plans to hire additional software engineers, Soleja said. He anticipates adding five to six new software development roles in the coming months. Although the company shifted to working entirely remotely during the coronavirus pandemic, Soleja said he aims to hire software developers based in the Houston region.
Molecule also wants to grow its teams with sales and marketing positions to continue breaking out in the crowded trading software space. Soleja said Molecule has not invested too deeply into marketing efforts since its founding in 2012 — something he aims to change going forward.
Soleja said the 14-person team at Molecule has managed to accomplish a lot while remaining very lean. But six months or so from now, Molecule's headcount could be around 20 people, he said.
In addition to more offerings for traders of electricity and renewables credits, Molecule is getting requests from its enterprise clients for custom, tailored services, like data warehouse integrations.
"Part of what we're planning is deploying capital to satisfy those [enterprise] needs as we continue to move up-market and surprise our competition," Soleja said.
