Today, Parity Inc., the leading proptech solution optimizing HVAC operations in mid-rise and high-rise apartment buildings and hotels, is pleased to announce the closing of $8M CAD in financing, strengthening its position as a leader in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) optimization for multi-tenant buildings.

With the financial support of Wyse, RET Ventures and other investors, Parity is well-positioned to significantly scale its Canadian operations and expand the reach of its SaaS HVAC control technology throughout the United States. Parity’s new investors join existing shareholders including ArcTern Ventures. 

“This significant partnership with, and investment by, Wyse and RET Ventures will position us strategically for continued growth in both Canada and the United States,” says Brad Pilgrim, CEO, Parity.

“The overlapping values of our three organizations and our collective partners (all focused on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) leadership) speak to the tremendous opportunities and alignment ahead. We look forward to leveraging these partnerships and investments to help building managers and asset owners implement the necessary technology to minimize wasted energy in buildings and build a greener, more sustainable future.”

Parity’s technology platform is designed to transform the operations and energy management of mid-rise and high-rise apartment buildings and hotels with a capital-light, non-intrusive model that can be integrated into any property’s existing operating system. Once connected, Parity optimizes HVAC equipment performance and minimizes energy waste, decreasing capital investment costs and offering building management teams opportunities to take tangible steps towards their ESG goals and targets.

“Wyse is continually searching for ways to provide our clients with access to high-quality green technology to meet and exceed their sustainability agendas – and this investment is a direct reflection of that commitment,” said Peter Mills, CEO, Wyse Meter Solutions. “We are excited about a future that brings together sustainability leaders to help customers across the country reduce utility consumption, save money, and lead greener lives.”

The Parity platform was founded in 2016, initially targeting developments in the Canadian multifamily market. After growing to 150 assets nationwide in Canada, Parity entered the U.S. market in 2020 launching with over two dozen New York-based apartment buildings in partnership with key industry leaders.

Parity-enabled buildings consistently reduce their annual carbon emissions by 30 to 50 percent and have supported the reduction of more than 5,500 metric tons of CO2 emissions to date.

“As the broader business community starts to wrestle with climate risk, the built environment has clearly emerged as low-hanging fruit”, says Tom Rand, Co-Founder of ArcTern Ventures. “There aren’t a lot of areas where carbon reduction is so obviously profitable. By automating the engineering that unlocks those savings, Parity further accelerates the sector’s early lead in carbon reduction.”

Relying on the effectiveness of its technology and the efficiency of its service model, Parity is able to guarantee cost savings. If the projected cost savings are not achieved, Parity will make up the difference for property owners.

“Multifamily operators are increasingly considering and proactively managing the environmental footprint of their assets,” said Christopher Yip, Partner at RET Ventures. “Parity’s platform supports these initiatives by utilizing a software control system that can make remote decisions on behalf of a building, optimizing the largest single load — the central HVAC system. This not only leads to a significant reduction in energy waste, but also a meaningful return on investment for the customer. With property owners across the country clamoring for a solution like Parity’s, we are excited to help accelerate the company’s continued growth in the U.S. market.”

About Parity Inc.

Established in 2016, Parity Inc. helps make urban buildings sustainable by eliminating energy waste in multi-tenant buildings. The company’s algorithm driven Energy Management Platform autonomously optimizes HVAC equipment performance and guarantees energy savings while maintaining maximum comfort for building residents.

Trusted by asset managers, property managers, condo boards and mechanical partners, Parity’s real-time diagnostics and monthly reporting keep stakeholders always in the loop with full transparency.

About Wyse Meter Solutions

Based in Concord, Ontario, Wyse is a leading expert in utility information, providing innovative submetering and sustainability solutions for the multi-residential, condominium and commercial markets in Canada.  Wyse’s range of high-quality services enables building owners, developers and managers to take charge of their utility expense by delivering environmentally sustainable and equitable suite submetering. Wyse is unique in its ability to provide energy consumption transparency and accountability to its customers. The company has achieved exceptional growth with many of Canada’s largest real estate companies. Wyse is backed by Onex through ONCAP, its mid-market investment fund. Onex is a publicly traded company that invests and manages $46 billion in capital with global operations.

For more information, please visit www.wysemeter.com.

About RET Ventures

A leading real estate technology investment firm, RET Ventures is the first industry-backed, early-stage venture fund strategically focused on building cutting-edge “rent tech” — technology for multifamily and single-family rental real estate. RET invests out of core venture funds and a Housing Impact Fund, backing companies that address a range of pain points for real estate operators.

Through its deep expertise and connections, RET provides solutions to issues ranging from housing affordability and sustainability to risk management and operational efficiency.

The firm’s Strategic Investors include some of the largest REITs and private real estate owner-operators and managers, who control approximately 2.4 million rental units worth $600 billion.

For more information, please visit www.ret.vc

Source: Parity Inc.

Xeal, an electric vehicle charging start-up, has bagged $40 million in funding as it prepares to expand in the US.

New York-based Xeal links up with real estate firms and property developers to install its EV charging units and software at apartment buildings and office blocks.

The Series B round was led by Keyframe Capital with participation from ArcTern Ventures, Moderne Ventures, clean tech investor Ramez Naam, Nexus Labs, Wind Ventures and Alpaca VC. The company has also raised a $10 million credit line from Bridge Bank.

Xeal has partnerships with the likes of UBS, Friedman Realty Group and Stoneweg to install charging points in their buildings, which the company describes as the “gas stations of the future”.

“When we closed the Series A about a year ago the plan was to launch technologies that makes clean energy work anywhere for anyone and part of that was working with real estate owners and developers that control the keys to the future,” chief executive Alexander Isaacson said.

Xeal has developed a platform called Apollo, which is built on distributed ledger technology, to operate its EV charging stations and its accompanying software for drivers that use them.

Isaacson said there is a recurring problem among EV charging companies where the technology is connected to a central server, creating a single point of failure when there is downtime.

“When we first launched the technology in 2019, we deployed it in apartments and workplaces and that’s when all hell broke loose,” he said of the initial version of the technology that Xeal used.

The company was fielding hundreds of complaints from users: “Everyone pointed back to a single point of failure dependent on a central server.”

The patent-pending Apollo harnesses the power of each user’s smartphone – “the mobile data center in their pocket” – on the system rather through a central server.

Xeal generates revenue through multiple channels. It charges property owners for the installation of the chargers with a subscription for access to the management software.

“On the driver side, the driver simply just taps to pay, like Apple Pay, and we make a revenue share with the building owner where they make the majority of the revenue that the driver pays and we make small portion off that as well,” Isaacson said.

The new funds will be invested in further development of the technology, including expansion of the company’s new engineering lab in Venice, California.

“Another portion of the funding will be used to grow our partnerships. That involves bringing on more real estate champions to be part of our community.”

The company also plans to develop a reseller program and expects to have a network of 10,000 chargers by the end of the year.

Isaacson said the company wants to expand its presence across the country, particularly in regions where electric vehicles have yet to take off at a significant scale.

He said taking this plunge is necessary to solve the chicken-and-egg problem in electric vehicle uptake and charger availability.

“Clean tech companies in general have always gone to places they’re welcomed. It oversaturates key markets instead of empowering new markets. If we don’t have charging stations in areas where there’s no EV drivers then there’ll never be EV drivers. It’s the chicken and the egg.”

Isaacson added that he is hopeful the new federal tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act will stimulate EV growth and consumer confidence.

Source: Forbes.com

Loblaw Companies Limited (“Loblaw”), Canada’s leading grocery retailer, today announced a major milestone in its efforts to fight climate change by reducing food waste. Since 2019, through its relationship with Flashfood, a digital marketplace that connects consumers to heavily discounted food nearing its best-before date, Loblaw has diverted 40 million pounds of food from landfill and helped Canadians save more than $110 million on groceries. The landmark achievement is due to the integration of Flashfood’s program across 720 Loblaw stores and franchises. As Loblaw fights climate change by reducing food waste, consumers save money on groceries.

Over the past two years, more than 1.6 million users in Canada have turned to Flashfood to save money and reduce waste. With Flashfood, shoppers save up to 50% off items nearing their best-by date, such as meats, dairy, seafood, fresh fruits and vegetables, snacks, and more. Shoppers conveniently browse and buy applicable products right from their mobile device. Purchases are made directly through the app and customers can simply pick up their order from the Flashfood Zone located inside their participating store. 

“As a purpose-led organization, Loblaw is firmly committed to helping Canadians live life well. By partnering with Flashfood, we are reducing our impact on the environment while also helping our customers save money,” said Robert Sawyer, Chief Operating Officer, Loblaw Companies Limited. “This is an incredible milestone, made possible thanks to industry leaders like Flashfood, and we look forward to the ongoing impact of our partnership.”

The 40 million pounds of food diverted equates to 76 million pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) saved from reaching the atmosphere, or the equivalent of 7,428 gas powered passenger vehicles being taken off the road for an entire year.

“Loblaw was our first partner to scale and continues to be our biggest partner,” said Flashfood Founder & CEO, Josh Domingues. “The 40 million pounds of food saved milestone underscores the ability of our mobile marketplace to deliver on our mission to reduce food waste and connect families with more affordable groceries. Loblaw is an industry leader in food waste reduction and this milestone is just the beginning of the impact we’ll continue to make for Canadian shoppers and families.”

Today, Flashfood can be found in Loblaw corporate and franchise supermarkets across Canada including No Frills, Maxi, Real Canadian Superstore, Atlantic Superstore, Loblaws, Real Canadian Wholesale Club, Zehrs, Independent, Provigo and Dominion. For all Loblaw and Flashfood partner locations, visit flashfood.com/locations/home. To learn more about Flashfood, visit flashfood.com.

About Flashfood

Flashfood is an app-based marketplace that strives to eliminate retail food waste by connecting consumers with discounted food nearing its best-by date. The mobile app operates in over 1,400 grocery locations throughout the U.S. and Canada. Shoppers can buy items from grocery retailers through the Flashfood app and pick them up in-store at great prices while collectively reducing food waste. To date, Flashfood has diverted over 50 million pounds of food, saved shoppers over $120 million and more affordably fed hundreds of thousands of families. Flashfood is currently working with The GIANT Company, Meijer, Tops Friendly Markets, Loblaw, Martin’s Markets, VG’s, Family Fare, Food Lion, Giant Eagle, Giant Food and Stop & Shop. Flashfood is a free app available on iOS and Android. For more information, please visit www.flashfood.com.

About Loblaw Companies Limited

Loblaw Companies Limited is Canada’s food and pharmacy leader, as well as its largest retailer and private sector employer. With approximately two billion transactions each year in its unmatched network of nearly 2,500 stores and national e-commerce options, Loblaw brings food, pharmacy, beauty, apparel and financial services to customers through many of Canada’s favourite and most-trusted brands: President’s Choice, No Name, Loblaws, Shoppers Drug Mart, No Frills, Real Canadian Superstore, T&T, Joe Fresh, PC Express and PC Financial. The company’s loyalty program, PC Optimum, has more than 18 million members and is one of Canada’s largest, and most loved reward programs. Loblaw’s purpose is to help Canadians live life well. It makes good food affordable, health, beauty and wellness accessible, saving for the future possible, and essential style achievable. For more information, visit Loblaw’s website at www.loblaw.ca.

Source: Flashfood

For further information: Melissa Rhodes, melissa.rhodes@flashfood.com

A California community electricity distributor has signed a 25-year power purchase agreement with Toronto-based Hydrostor Inc., a deal worth almost US$1-billion that moves a long-duration energy storage project closer to fruition.

Under the agreement, Central Coast Community Energy will contract for 40 per cent of the offtake from Hydrostor’s Willow Rock Energy Storage Center, a proposed development near Rosamond, in Kern County, Calif. The project will employ the company’s advanced compressed air energy storage technology.

Willow Rock is one of two planned Hydrostor developments in California. The plants, which can store energy longer than lithium-ion batteries, will allow more renewable energy onto grids by smoothing out the inherent supply variability of wind and solar farms. The company is also developing a project in New South Wales, Australia. The three plants are expected to cost about $2.5-billion to build.

Privately held Hydrostor plans to make a final investment decision on the 500-megawatt Willow Rock facility in mid-2024, pending project debt and equity financing, engineering and permitting. All of those are on track, and the power purchase agreement with Central Coast represents a major milestone toward starting construction, Hydrostor chief executive officer Curtis VanWalleghem said in an e-mail.

Hydrostor’s system works by pumping compressed air into a cavern deep underground. The rush of air pushes water up to a reservoir at the surface. When electricity is needed, the water is released back into the cavern, sending the air out and driving turbines to generate power. The Willow Rock plant has been designed to discharge energy for up to eight hours, and the system can run on either excess or off-peak power from the grid or from renewable sources.

Last year, the company attracted big-name investors in its bid to develop its current slate of projects and expand around the world. The asset management arm of Goldman Sachs committed US$250-million, and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board agreed to invest US$25-million. Hydrostor’s other backers include ArcTern Ventures, Lorem Partners, Canoe Financial and Business Development Bank of Canada.

Central Coast serves 447,000 customers in 33 communities in California and aims to source 100-per-cent clean energy by 2030. In a statement, it called energy storage “the most critical piece of the transition to renewable energy.”

Hydrostor said Central Coast will buy 200 megawatts, or 1,600 megawatt hours, of electricity from the storage project. It also said it is in talks with several other parties for the remainder of its capacity.

In October, Hydrostor announced it had struck a deal with engineering and construction company McDermott International to proceed with front-end engineering and design studies for its Silver City storage project in that country.

Source: The Globe and Mail

Scythe first hit our radar when it emerged from stealth in 2021 with a $13.8 million Series A. The world of robotic mowers is already a fairly crowded one, but while many are going after home applications (lawn Roombas, if you will), the Boulder, Colorado–based firm is specifically targeting commercial landscapers.

“[The M.52 mower] is purpose-built to tackle the unique challenges of commercial landscaping,” co-founder and CEO Jack Morrison tells TechCrunch. “Our customers use M.52 to autonomously mow large-scale commercial properties like corporate campuses, parks, sports fields, and HOA complexes, all of which can have steep slopes and tough terrain. And the demand for durability goes beyond the mowing itself. M.52 has to withstand the rough treatment of daily commercial landscape operations — like loading and unloading from trailers, moving through tightly packed depots, and jumping curbs in parking lots.”

This morning it’s announcing a $42 million Series B, which brings its to-date funding north of $60 million. The round was led by Energy Impact Partners and features new investors like ArcTern Ventures, Alumni Ventures and the Alexa Fund. The last one is certainly intriguing, as Amazon loves to use these as opportunities to integrate its voice assistant into third-party tech, but the company says it doesn’t “have anything to share regarding future plans for integrating voice controls into M.52.”

Scythe began delivering the mower to customers in Texas late last year and is beginning to deliver them in Florida as well. This new round will — in part — go toward fulfilling its 7,500 existing reservations. Hiring is on the docket too.

“Scythe is now just over 50 people and we’re excited to grow the team in the coming years. We already have a bunch of roles open and we plan to hire dozens more over the next 12 months,” Morrison says. “We’ll not only be hiring across many engineering disciplines (from computer vision and robotics to mechanical and electrical engineering), but we’ll more than double the size of our manufacturing and customer teams as we build and deploy many more M.52.”

Morrison adds that, while the climate hasn’t been particularly great for fundraising, the firm was still able to find some like-minded investors. “The market has definitely taken a bearish turn,” he adds, “that committed climate VCs are well funded and actively looking for investment opportunities that urgently address the intensifying climate crisis we face.”

Source: www.techcrunch.com

Technology-centric flood MGA, reThought Insurance has raised $10.5 million in a Series B funding round, which closely follows a successful $15.5 million round last summer.

According to the announcement, the capital expansion will be used to extend the distribution of its advanced commercial and High Net Worth flood insurance products, and to further hone its technology platform, which facilitates the most advanced flood underwriting capability in the industry.

reThought Insurance focuses on US commercial flood risks. It writes flood coverage for complex mid-tier commercial risks and high net worth properties.

According to the MGA, its advanced underwriting approach has delivered exceptional loss ratios for its capacity partners, despite recent major flood events including Hurricane Ian and the California storms earlier this month.

Cory Isaacson, Chief Executive and Founder of reThought Insurance, said: “The continued support of our existing investor partners, alongside the welcome addition of new, highly experienced insurance venture capitalists is a powerful endorsement of our market-leading technological approach, especially now, when InsurTech funding is receding. The private market for US commercial flood insurance is set to grow exponentially.”

InsurTech venture capital firm IA Capital Group led the round, joining existing investors Telstra Ventures, Hudson Structured Capital Management, ArcTern Ventures, and an unnamed strategic investor.

Matthew Perlman, partner at IA Capital, commented: “Recent events have underscored the growing severity and ubiquity of flood risk, and the urgency of closing the flood protection gap.

“As the contours of flood risk continue to change, we’re confident the reThought team will maintain and expand its edge as the most sophisticated flood underwriter in the market, and a high-performing partner to brokers and reinsurers.”

Source: www.reinsurancene.ws

Hydrostor Inc. (“Hydrostor”), a leading long-duration energy storage solution provider, today announced a preferred equity financing commitment of US$250 million from the Private Equity and Sustainable Investing businesses within Goldman Sachs Asset Management (“Goldman Sachs”). 

The investment proceeds will be used to support development and construction of Hydrostor’s 1.1GW, 8.7GWh of Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage (“A-CAES”) projects in Australia and California that are well underway, and to expand Hydrostor’s project development pipeline globally. 

Goldman Sachs will fund its investment in tranches tied to project milestones to match Hydrostor’s capital needs and accelerate project execution throughout development, construction, and operations alongside Hydrostor’s development partners. The financing will also support Hydrostor’s global development and marketing initiatives, including expansion of its project pipeline and capabilities in markets with significant near-term demand for flexibly sited long-duration energy storage.  

Curtis VanWalleghem, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder of Hydrostor, said: “We are delighted with this investment by Goldman Sachs. It is transformational for Hydrostor and validates the competitiveness of our proprietary A-CAES solution as well as the strength of our pipeline of potential projects.”

Charlie Gailliot, Partner and Head of Energy Transition Private Equity Investing within Goldman Sachs Asset Management, said: “As the world continues transitioning to sustainable and renewable energy sources, the need for utility-scale long-duration energy storage is clear, and Hydrostor’s A-CAES solution is well positioned to become a leading player in this emerging global market. We look forward to working with the Hydrostor team over the coming years and leveraging our firm’s global platform to support Hydrostor’s growth, which will play a central role in the ongoing energy transition.”   

Curtis VanWalleghem added: “I would like to thank our existing investors, including ArcTern Ventures, Lorem Partners, Canoe Financial, and Business Development Bank of Canada, all of whom will remain our partners. Hydrostor’s evolution has been made possible by their support and support from various agencies of the Government of Canada. I would also like to thank outgoing directors Elisabeth Hivon and Tom Rand for their service and welcome Charlie Gailliot, Sebastien Gagnon, and Gunduz Shirin from Goldman Sachs to our board.”

Fort Capital Partners and CIBC Capital Markets acted as financial advisors to Hydrostor, and Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP served as legal counsel.  

About Goldman Sachs Asset Management Private Equity

Bringing together traditional and alternative investments, Goldman Sachs Asset Management provides clients around the world with a dedicated partnership and focus on long-term performance. As the primary investing area within Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), we deliver investment and advisory services for the world’s leading institutions, financial advisors and individuals, drawing from our deeply connected global network and tailored expert insights, across every region and market—overseeing more than $2 trillion in assets under supervision worldwide as of September 30, 2021. Driven by a passion for our clients’ performance, we seek to build long-term relationships based on conviction, sustainable outcomes, and shared success over time. Goldman Sachs Asset Management invests in the full spectrum of alternatives, including private equity, growth equity, private credit, real estate and infrastructure. Established in 1986, the Private Equity business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management has invested over $75 billion since inception. We combine our global network of relationships, our unique insight across markets, industries and regions, and the worldwide resources of Goldman Sachs to build businesses and accelerate value creation across our portfolios. Follow on LinkedIn.

About Hydrostor

Hydrostor is a long-duration energy storage solutions provider that provides reliable and affordable utility integration of long-duration energy storage, enabling grid operators to scale renewable energy and secure grid capacity. Hydrostor supports the green economic transition, employing the people, suppliers, and technologies from the traditional energy sector to design, build, and operate emissions-free energy storage facilities. Hydrostor has developed, deployed, tested, and demonstrated that its patented Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage (“A-CAES”) technology can provide long-duration energy storage and enable the renewable energy transition. A-CAES uses proven components from mining and gas operations to create a scalable energy storage system that is low-impact, cost-effective, 50+ year lifetime, and can store energy from 5 hours up to multi-day storage where needed. Hydrostor has projects worldwide in various development stages for providing capacity of over 200 MW each. Follow on LinkedIn.

The funding will be used to expand the company’s U.S. presence to offer more shoppers discounted grocery items that would otherwise end up in landfills

Flashfood, a mobile marketplace providing customers access to heavily discounted food nearing its best-by date, today announced $12.3M in Series A funding led by investor S2G Ventures.

ev.energy’s user-friendly mobile app and platform delivers cheaper and more environmentally friendly charging to drivers, while allowing u

Follow-on investment came from ArcTern Ventures and existing investors including General Catalyst, Food Retail Ventures, Rob Gierkink and Alex Moorhead. S2G Ventures managing director and founder of OpenTable, Chuck Templeton, will join the Flashfood board of directors.

The funding will support Flashfood’s continued expansion in the U.S. and enhance the company’s ability to feed more families affordably by working with retailers to sell food that would typically be discarded.

Food wasted by the retail sector in the U.S. represents $37 billion a year in lost value due to the massive volume of surplus food reaching its best-by date before grocery stores have a chance to sell it to shoppers. Flashfood is changing this statistic through a digitally-driven solution for grocery retailers to sell surplus food, reduce shrink and their carbon footprint, while also increasing grocers profits. To date, Flashfood has diverted more than 33 million pounds of food from landfills through partnerships with grocery stores throughout the U.S. and Canada.

“This round of funding for Flashfood will allow us to rapidly work toward a more sustainable food system while giving consumers big discounts on groceries, helping them save money and do good for our planet at the same time,” said Josh Domingues, Founder and CEO of Flashfood. “This funding comes at a time when Flashfood is needed more than ever. It will fuel our ability to reach more shoppers and partner with sustainability-minded grocery chains across America. Every stakeholder is winning in this equation!”

The Flashfood app connects shoppers with grocery items nearing their best-by date, offering a discount of up to 50% off those items. To-date, Flashfood has saved shoppers more than $100 million on groceries. Today, Flashfood can be found in over 1200 participating partner stores including GIANT, Stop & Shop, Giant Food of Maryland, Meijer, Tops, Martin’s Markets, Family Fare, Loblaw Companies Limited and more.

“At S2G Ventures, our mission is to back trailblazing entrepreneurs working to build a healthier and more sustainable food system and we’ve seen how Flashfood can help deliver on this vision,” said Chuck Templeton, managing director at S2G. “Through innovation, Flashfood has created a simple way for retailers and consumers to help put a dent in the food waste crisis in a way that creates value for everyone, the retailer, shoppers and the planet. We’re very excited to support the app as they scale their business in the U.S and beyond.”

By downloading the Flashfood app, customers can browse through available deals at any participating store. Shoppers purchase items directly in the app, reducing the need for in-store shopping, and then pick up their order any time during the day from the Flashfood zone in their participating store. All participating Flashfood store and distribution center locations can be found via the store locator.

About Flashfood
Flashfood is an app-based marketplace that strives to eliminate retail food waste by connecting consumers with discounted food nearing its best-by date. The mobile app operates in over 1,200 grocery locations throughout the U.S. and Canada. Shoppers can buy items from grocery retailers through the Flashfood app and pick them up in-store at great prices while collectively reducing food waste. To date, Flashfood has diverted over 33 million pounds of food, saved shoppers over $100 million and more affordably fed hundreds of thousands of families. Flashfood is currently working with The GIANT Company, Meijer, Tops Friendly Markets, Martin’s Markets, Family Fare, VG’s Grocery, Giant Eagle, Giant Food of Maryland and Stop & Shop. Flashfood is a free app available on iOS and Android. For more information, please visit flashfood.com.

About S2G Ventures
S2G Ventures is a multi-stage venture fund investing across the food, agriculture, oceans and seafood markets. The fund’s mission is to catalyze innovation to meet consumer demands for healthy and sustainable food systems. S2G has identified sectors across the food system that are ripe for change, and is building a multi-stage portfolio including seed, venture and growth stage investments. Core areas of interest for S2G are agriculture, oceans, ingredients, infrastructure and logistics, IT and hardware, food safety and technology, retail and restaurants, and consumer brands. S2G Ventures is a part of Builders Private Capital, the direct investment arm of Builders Vision, an impact platform dedicated to building a humane and healthy planet. For more information about S2G, visit s2gventures.com, tune-in to our podcast or connect with us on LinkedIn.

PR Contact:
Nadia Jamshidi
nadia.jamshidi@padillaco.com
(408) 859-6052

Source: Flashfood

ev.energy, a global provider of electric vehicle (EV) charging software, has extended its Series A financing round to $12.8M led by ArcTern Ventures. ev.energy’s product helps utilities, vehicle manufacturers, and charger manufacturers to deploy new, technology-driven EV charging programs to their customers, allowing them to save money while balancing EV electricity consumption with other power grid requirements. The investment will be used to help the software start-up scale its platform to additional partners, as well as to build new capabilities and products that intelligently manage EV charging. The round was also supported by Energy Impact Partners, Future Energy Ventures, and other existing ev.energy investors.

“We are witnessing a major inflection point in the rate of electric vehicle adoption globally. We invested in ev.energy because they’re uniquely positioned; they have the broad geographic reach, flexible business model, and customer-obsessed culture to truly scale smart charging,” said Mira Inbar, Partner at ArcTern Ventures.

ev.energy’s user-friendly mobile app and platform delivers cheaper and more environmentally friendly charging to drivers, while allowing utilities to manage charging more cost-effectively. Additionally, as large regulated utilities like National Grid and Southern California Edison launch new programs with ev.energy, they can reward customers from across the U.S. with cash back for helping the grid by charging during off-peak hours, and dynamically adapting to conditions in real-time on the grid.

“Partnering with ev.energy and the Charge Smart mobile app helps EV customers reduce their charging costs by earning rebates for charging off-peak. The app also tracks EV charging and total energy costs,” said John Isberg, Vice President of Customer Sales and Solutions at National Grid. “Shifting EV charging to off-peak times when electricity demand is at its lowest supports EV drivers and ensures the resiliency of the electric grid for all customers.”

With the resiliency of California’s power grid under threat, ev.energy has seen a groundswell of interest from a growing base of local community choice aggregators (CCAs), who have carved out a niche in communities that prefer locally-controlled renewable energy options. After a successful pilot with CCA, Silicon Valley Clean Energy, ev.energy recently partnered with MCE and have plans to enter into similar partnerships with neighboring CCAs later this year.

“MCE’s EV programs are focused on making clean transportation accessible to everyone while decreasing grid strain,” said Brett Wiley, MCE’s Customer Programs Manager responsible for the MCEv portfolio of programs. “Working with ev.energy, we launched the MCE Sync app to provide our customers with a lower-cost, hardware-free, and hassle-free way to charge with low-carbon electricity and save money on their energy bills.”

Partnerships with infrastructure players like Siemens continue to play an important role in scaling ev.energy’s platform across the United States and internationally. In states like Texas, ev.energy has paired its software with Siemens VersiCharge home chargers to deliver critical demand-response services to prevent future blackouts such as the one caused by the winter storm in February 2021.

“Vehicle electrification represents one of the biggest challenges, as well as opportunities of this decade in both the U.S. and across the globe,” said Chris King, Chief Policy Officer at Siemens eMobility. “The combination of Siemens world-class hardware and ev.energy’s cutting-edge software will support the ongoing needs of both fleet and residential customers as we work together to advance a more sustainable, electrified future.”

“I’m delighted at the traction ev.energy has had with utilities and EV drivers, and the value that our software has delivered to power grids in California, Texas, and elsewhere,” said Nick Woolley, CEO, and co-founder of ev.energy. “It’s great to have ArcTern onboard working alongside EIP and FEV, to continue to fuel our growth as we advance on our mission to deliver greener, cheaper, smarter EV charging across the world.”

About ArcTern Ventures
ArcTern Ventures is a venture capital firm obsessed with helping solve the climate crisis and rethinking sustainability. ArcTern, based in Toronto with offices in Oslo and San Francisco, invests globally in breakthrough technology companies solving climate change and sustainability – we call it #earthtech. The fund was founded on the premise that accelerating the transition to a carbon-neutral economy will disrupt all industries and present an unprecedented opportunity for outsized financial returns. Solving our planet’s biggest problems will lead to big rewards—for companies, their investors, and of course, Mother Earth.

About ev.energy
ev.energy is a Certified B Corporation® with a mission to make EV charging greener, cheaper, and smarter for utilities and their customers. Its end-to-end software platform wirelessly connects to a range of electric vehicles and L2 chargers and intelligently manages EV charging in line with utility and network signals while keeping customers engaged and rewarded through an award-winning mobile app. With a global base of utility customers including National Grid, Southern Company, E.ON Energy, UK Power Networks and AusNet, ev.energy manages hundreds of megawatts of EV load on its platform each day. Learn more at ev.energy.

Media contacts: ev.energy@missionc2.com

Source: ev.energy