Autogrid raises USD 32 million in series-D funding

AutoGrid, which builds software applications that utilise AI, machine learning, big data and internet of things technologies, on Wednesday announced it has raised USD 32 million in series-D funding secured from a set of energy investors.

Series-D funding is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing by which start-ups get investment generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors.

The new set of investors includes CLP Holdings Group, innogy, rstead, Tenaska and others.

"We are excited by this investment, which will help us drive forward our mission of accelerating the transition to clean, affordable and reliable energy," a press release quoted chief executive officer of Autogrid Amit Narayan as saying.

All the existing investors - Energy Impact Partners, EnvisionVentures, Total Energy Ventures, Clearsky Power and Technology Fund, E. ON and Foundation Capital - also participated in thisround, the release said.

AutoGrid's round of USD 32 million represents the largest infusion to date in any pure-play software platform focused on applying AI to real-time optimisation and controls of flexibleenergy resources, it said.

With this round, the company has raised a total of USD 75 million to accelerate growth and further increase its productdifferentiation, the release said.

The round is led by a global consortium of energy companies, allowing AutoGrid to accelerate commercial deployment of the AutoGrid Flex platform across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, it said.

The consortium that includes seven of the 10 largest utilities in North America serves over 100 million customers globally and represents USD 1 trillion in the total market capitalisation, the release said.

AutoGrid is experiencing rapid growth and is on track toget a contract for over 5,000 MW of flexible energy resources on its platformbefore this year-end, representing a compound annual growth rate of over 100 per cent for each of the last three years,it added.