Virtual Peaker, a cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, has closed on a $16.6 million Series A fundraising round.
The fast-growing startup, headquartered in Louisville, developed a distributed energy resource management systems (DERMS) platform used by utility companies to manage their distributed energy resources, including rooftop solar, wind, residential battery storage and electric vehicles (EVs). Now, it's expanding significantly to offer wraparound services, including customer engagement and forecasting, to make its suite of products accessible to every utility.
Bill Burke, founder and CEO, said after launching the company's initial DERMS product, the team recognized that in order to effectively operate distributed energy resource programs, utilities were having to hire expensive consulting services. Virtual Peaker has been able to leverage its core technology to go after interrelated segments, creating a more seamless experience for its customers.
"We're a startup so we try to move fast and we try to move forward incrementally, which I think is core to our culture," Burke said. "We've always had some level of customer engagement from the start of the company before there were any employees aside from me. We fleshed it out and then made a decision that, 'OK, this is its own thing now — we need to add these services.'"
Coupled with new product development, Burke said the No. 1 thing Virtual Peaker is tactically thinking about is how it will hire scores of new employees in 2022 in the challenging labor market. The company, which recently made the move to a remote-first work environment, currently has 40 staffers, more than half of which are in Louisville. That's up from 18 when I last wrote about the company in April 2021.
"We're hiring across the board and in basically every aspect of our business right now," Burke said. "We're hiring in product development, we're trying to hire 20 new software developers, we're hiring and marketing, sales, client success, research and development, partnerships, VP of HR — basically everything."
Check out Virtual Peaker's open positions here.
Burke said the fresh capital will be used to fuel both the staff and product growth. The round was led by investor Louis Bacon’s Moore Strategic Ventures (MSV), with participation from Emerson Ventures, the corporate venture capital initiative of Emerson (NYSE: EMR).
“Efficiently managing electricity demand is an essential component of a grid capable of meeting the world’s goal of electrification and decarbonization,” said James McIntyre, senior managing director and COO of Moore Strategic Ventures, in a news release. “We are excited to invest in one of the leading distributed energy solutions today in Virtual Peaker and look forward to working with them to build a more flexible grid.”
Burke said the company is excited to work with both investors, highlighting Louis Bacon's reputation as an investor and Emerson's industrial and consumer products divisions, which are complementary to Virtual Peaker's business.
“Virtual Peaker has developed industry-leading capabilities that have significant potential to complement the distributed energy resource management systems of Emerson’s business," said Thurston Cromwell, head of Emerson Ventures, in the release. "This support is a great example of the Emerson Ventures approach — investing in promising early-stage companies with great technology where Emerson can be a true value-add strategic partner."
