D.C.’s SparkMeter Inc., which aims to bring reliable power to rural and underserved markets, has raised $10 million in fresh funding to launch a new analytics platform for electricity providers.
The smart-grid startup said Thursday it plans to use the financing to roll out a new grid management technology and expand its work globally — as demand grows for access to electricity and aging grid assets make meeting that need more difficult. The company’s latest tool, called Koios, builds on other software, metering equipment and services to help utilities operate efficiently, improve reliability and make their energy cleaner over time.
Slated to debut in April, Koios handles the payment and billing process, provides system insights and aims to improve operations for the distribution system of an electric grid — the part that delivers the energy to the user. It’s also designed to help utilities deal with stress on power lines and transformers, poor grid edge visibility and other challenges, as well as to plan for new additions to the grid (think: electric vehicle chargers), according to SparkMeter.
The new capital comes from lead investor Accurant International of Bainbridge Island, Washington, as well as Boston’s Clean Energy Ventures and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Bill Gates’ $1 billion fund, which jointly led the company’s $12 million round in August 2020.
SparkMeter, founded in 2013, focuses on developing countries and emerging markets including in Africa, Asia and South America — where it says 3.5 billion people lack reliable access to electricity. But the latest funding also positions SparkMeter to target small electricity providers within the U.S., according to Axios, which first reported the news Thursday. We have reached out to the company for more details, including about these plans, and will update this post as we hear back.
The startup secures this capital in a moment of increasing demand for consistent access to electricity. That’s translating to an explosive growth period for the sector, which is projected to be worth roughly $162.4 billion by 2030, according to data from Precedence Research. The investment also comes as clean tech investing heats up locally.
The launch follows the summer 2020 unveiling of SparkMeter Digital Solutions, which leans on data analytics to help providers increase grid capacity and strengthen their financial and environmental sustainability. At that time, the company set out to transition from focusing exclusively on metering, billing and payments, to “a much broader offering of consultative managed services and digital solutions,” SparkMeter co-founder and CEO Dan Schnitzer told us in August 2020. The idea, he said, “is helping utilities convert a wealth of system data from smart meters into tangible impacts on financial margins, system reliability and quality of energy access through digital transformation.”
SparkMeter was born after Schnitzer started nonprofit EarthSpark International, which still operates today. That organization received grants and funding to build microgrids in Haiti. And after building a privately operated microgrid in a small town called Les Anglais, EarthSpark spun off the Haiti business as well as SparkMeter in 2013 to focus on developing microgrid hardware and software.
Alongside Schnitzer, SparkMeter has three other co-founders: Jacquiau-Chamski, its chief operating officer; Tristan Escalada, principal engineer; and Nai Phasay, vice president of hardware engineering.
