Sacramento-based Eli Technologies Inc. has raised $6.8 million in venture capital to grow subscription sales to its platform to help contractors find government and utility incentive programs for residential electrification upgrades.
The funding into Eli was led by Jackson, Wyoming-based Lowercarbon Capital and Spero Ventures of Redwood City.
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 provides billions of dollars to move toward electrification and energy efficiency upgrades, but many of the grant and incentive programs are “unnecessarily complex,” said Eli CEO Jeff Coleman. “It is hard to know what is out there and how to apply.”
Eli is a platform that allows contractors to see what incentives are available for household upgrades including solar, home battery, electric vehicles, EV chargers and energy efficiency, he said.
Eli is focused on residential programs, which currently exist mostly in California and New York, but the Inflation Reduction Act will be creating those programs in many more states by the end of the year, Coleman said.
Eli was founded in December 2022, and has 14 employees. The company tends to work remote-first, but it holds its in-person meetings at the WeWork Office Space and Coworking on Capitol Mall in Sacramento.
The company is targeting 8,000 programs across the country. What it offers is software to know which programs are available, and which programs currently have funding, along with software to navigate the complicated forms necessary to get projects approved, he said.
Eli gets paid a software-as-a-service subscription for access to the platform, and it charges a fee per project on the projects where it successfully processes a rebate.
"We want to be a trusted partner to let people know what is available, what is happening and what is on the way,” he said.
A big part of what Eli offers is also letting contractors know which programs are funded, and if they still have funding. Some programs are funded for several years, but they have yearly caps, and once that annual money is expended, there won’t be more funding until the next budget. Eli keeps track of available funding so that work does get its incentive or grant money.
Eli’s customers are contractors and in some cases the programs themselves.
Not all incentives are the same. Some pay for entire projects, while others pay so little they aren’t worth the effort to pursue. Eli sorts that out for contractors.
It also stays on top of programs moving through the legislature.
In addition to the Inflation Reduction Act, there are growing utility and other incentive programs, Coleman said.
“We are in a space that has been growing despite all that is going on,” he said. “It’s a huge opportunity. It is the equivalent of 100 million small construction projects."
Spero Ventures was founded in 2018. Lowercarbon Capital in September last year raised more than $550 million for a pair of new venture funds focused on climate tech startups, according to Axios.
