Intelligent energy storage system producer Sunverge Energy has added Australian utility AGL to an investor base already containing Siemens and Total.
US-based energy storage and management technology provider Sunverge Energy raised $36.5m yesterday in a series C round featuring several corporate investors.
Siemens Venture Capital and Total Energy Ventures, the respective corporate venturing units of appliance and industrial product maker Siemens and petroleum supplier Total, were joined by power provider AGL Energy, venture capital firm SBCVC and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
Founded in 2009, Sunverge produces intelligent energy storage systems that enable utilities to deploy demand response initiatives on an individual level while supplying surplus energy to others in the area to meet peak demand.
Australia-based AGL provided its portion of the funding as part of a commercial agreement that makes it the exclusive channel partner for Sunverge’s systems in its home country.
Andy Vesey, managing director and CEO of AGL, and Alistair Preston, the utility’s executive general manager of new energy, will join Sunverge’s board of directors in conjunction with the round.
Vesey said: “Our partnership will allow us to better meet the needs of our customers in a carbon-constrained energy future which is increasingly based on decentralised products and services including digital metering, solar [photovoltaic] systems, as well as new technologies such as batteries, electric vehicles and other ‘beyond the meter’ energy solutions.”
Sunverge secured $2m in funding in 2011 before raising $15m in a 2014 series B round led by Southern Cross Renewable Energy Fund, a joint venture between SBCVC and the Australian government, and backed by Siemens Venture Capital and Total Energy Ventures.
