Tuesday, September 23, 2008
What Credit Crunch?
Smart grid player GridPoint snaps up $120 million in financing.
By David Talbot
The severe credit crisis rippling
through the markets didn't stop GridPoint--an
Arlington, VA, startup that makes software for smart management of the
power grid--from securing $120 million in equity financing, announced
yesterday. "Really high quality deals will continue to get funded, despite the
current turmoil," Peter Corsell, the company's president and CEO (and a member
of this year's TR35),
told me at a smart-grid conference in Washington,
D.C. He said the money will be used to acquire
other startups, starting with V2Green, a company that makes smart-grid software
for recharging plug-in hybrids and other electric vehicles. GridPoint is a key player in an effort to
upgrade the power grid in Boulder, CO, working with utilities including Duke
Energy and Xcel Energy. GridPoint's software provides utilities and consumers a
Web-based portal to manage and control electrical demand; it can do things like
shut off electric water heaters and pool pumps temporarily in times of high
demand. To date, GridPoint has raised more than $220 million.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology