Living in D.C. makes it difficult to take advantage of the renewable energy options afforded to consumers. For example, it's pretty impossible to install solar panels when you're renting an apartment unit.
But D.C. startup Arcadia Power is trying to make renewable energy more to conscious consumers. The company created a utility billing system that manages your payments across numerous companies, much in the same way Mint.com does. Arcadia offers a free plan for new utility consumers and a few premium packages, while also bringing in revenue through smart device sales.
Its first product let consumers match their energy consumption with a renewable energy certificate, or a one-to-one match with whatever energy consumers are already using and wind power. Its second product focuses on community solar programs and lets users connect to a solar project anywhere in the D.C. metro area without switching utility companies.
Arcadia Power has raised $4 million, including a $3.5 million venture round that closed in August, since its founding in 2014.
"The idea here was to fix the utility-customer relationship," Arcadia Power CEO and founder Kiran Bhatraju told DC Inno in an interview. "Utilities across the nation have captured monopolies where they've had the same customers for hundreds of years, but utilities haven't been giving consumers access to all of the energy options that exist in the market."
The company also recently started venturing into smart devices for the home with a new smart thermostat partnership with Schneider Electric. Current customers can sign up to receive one through Arcadia Power and then finance their purchase through their utility bills.
"It was always part of the road map to get more smart devices into the home," Bhatraju said. "Things that the utilities have not put a focus on, which is making your home more efficient, was what we really wanted to hop into."
Arcadia Power is Bhatraju's first startup. He came to D.C. to work on Capitol Hill. "I never thought I would be running a company, but I learned a ton while I was on the Hill about energy and utility markets," Bhatraju said.
So when he started to build up Arcadia Power, they looked towards the fintech world. "We took a lot of lessons from sort of the fintech world and the way that hundreds of companies have built really great software to help you understand your checking account, your saving account and help you find ways to save," Bhatraju said.
In the near future, Bhatraju said he and his team of 24 are looking to scale their solar energy product, as well as attempt to be an online adviser for clients in other markets where utility companies offer other energy options.
"What we're doing in the utility space is similar to the modern experiences people have in health care, in banking and we want to give people options that they didn't really have in the past," he said.
Photo courtesy of Arcadia Power
