Cleantech startup
SmartSynch raised $20 million in a third round
funding for expansion led by new investor Credit Suisse, on behalf of
its Customized Fund Investment Group, and including new investor
Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Co, along with existing investors,
Battelle Ventures, Beacon Group, Endeavor Capital Management, GulfSouth
Capital, Innovation Valley Partners, Kinetic Ventures, OPG Ventures and
Siemens Venture Capital, to support technology to allow utilities to
more efficiently manage electricity usage using remote meter monitoring.
The deal brings total investment in the eight-year-old company to $80
million, and and comes as an endorsement of smart metering systems to
help manage the electrical grid more efficiently and potentially reduce
the need for costly and dirty new power plants. Companies like
SmartSynch and Optimal Technologies International Inc., which
raised
$25 million from Goldman Sachs last September, were early to address
energy technology with the hopes of utility adoption in more
competitive deregulated markets, but languished as utilities largely
cut costs rather than improved services in response to deregulation.
Only now are companies like SmartSynch reaping the rewards of early
investment with increased venture interest in energy markets,and they
are touting their ability to help utilities prepare for coming carbon
regulation by better balancing their capacity. SmartSynch's SmartMeters
operate on an Internet-based software system that monitors the volume
and schedule of electricity volume to help utilities understand
customer electricity usage, and use that to work with large customers
to use energy more efficiently.
The SmartSynch system uses existing public wireless networks like GPRS,
EVDO, and WiFi and emerging networks like WiMax and 700 MHz to securely
and reliably deliver data from remote monitors and has deployed
technology for 75 major North American utilities.--Clifford Carlsen
See May 20 TechConfidential post
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