Splight, an AI startup at the forefront of grid operations technologies, today announced the completion of its seed funding round. The $12M round was led by noa (formerly A/O) and joined by EDP Ventures, Elewit, Draper Cygnus, Draper B1, Ascent Energy Ventures, Fen Ventures, Reaction Global, Barn Investments, and the UC Berkeley Foundation, among others.
Read also – [Funding News] Zest Security Raises $5 Million Seed Funding
This capital infusion will support the company’s mission to address the global, multi-generational challenge of clean energy at scale, expanding its North America and EU presence and continuing to grow its development, implementation, and leadership teams to keep up with growing demand.
Read also – [Funding News] Vanta Raises $150 Million Series C Funding
Grid congestion, also known as grid bottlenecks, is a shortage of transmission capacity caused by the grid’s reliance on outdated contingency management methods that leave up to half of grid transmission capacity unutilized. These bottlenecks lead to up to 40% of renewable energy generation being wasted and thousands of gigawatts of renewable energy projects waiting in queues to be connected to the grid.
The funding round attracted diverse investors, including climate tech and energy specialized venture capital firms, industry leaders, and university endowments. The investors have a global footprint covering the UK, the US, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Argentina. Kia Nejad, Investor at noa, said: “Energy curtailment is perhaps the most pressing issue for the transition to a sustainable energy system. Splight’s technology is a far more practical approach for modernizing the energy grid to meet current demands. We are excited to support Splight as they lead the implementation of scalable grid software, with an established presence amongst industry-leading customers in Europe, the US, and Latin America.”
Splight has developed new AI-based technology for advanced grid operations that tackles congestion using inverter-based resources (IBRs) as a source of reliability. It significantly reduces curtailment and accelerates the connection of utility-scale renewable power plants and the deployment of DERs and batteries. Its technology takes a novel approach, using real-time data and algorithms to use IBRs as grid-friendly assets.
By using Splight technology to tackle contingencies in real-time, up to 2x extra transmission capacity is unlocked, enabling terawatts of clean energy to be injected into the grid while simultaneously adding reliability. The no-tradeoff solution is transformative for grid operations: Splight’s tech is the key to prevent clean energy being wasted and facilitate the deployment and connection of renewable energy, DERs, and batteries at the pace needed and with the existing transmission infrastructure.
“Our technology is proven and commercially viable: we are solving grid congestion while adding reliability. It can be deployed fast enough to inject more than 3,000GWs of clean energy within months. This round is a huge vote of confidence and will be used to expand our business globally”, said Fernando Llaver, CEO of Splight.
About Splight
Splight is a pioneering AI startup that addresses the global, multi-generational challenge of clean energy at scale. It takes a fresh approach, using real-time data and AI algorithms to bridge the gap between technology and energy. It unlocks millions of terawatts of clean energy trapped by how energy grids are operated.
Splight adds a real-time operational layer and increases reliability to the grid. This new layer of reliability based on flexibility enables unleashing up to 2x of transmission capacity, massive adoption of EVs and DERs, making the most out of the use of batteries and reaching net zero electrical grids years ahead of any other alternative.
