Trilliant, a smart grid communication company with headquarters in Redwood City, California, announced earlier this month that it closed a $106 million round of financing.
The round was led by Investor Growth Capital (the venture division of Sweden's Investor AB), VantagePoint Venture Partners, ABB, and GE. The financing was coordinated by Deutsche Bank and includes a significant credit facility from a major venture credit provider as well as continuing financial support from existing investors MissionPoint Capital Partners and zouk ventures. The company said that it will use the funds to finance its continued expansion.
Trilliant was founded in 1985 and provides electric utilities with a smart grid communication network solution (illustrated below). The company currently has more than 200 utility customers, including Hydro One in Ontario, Canada, which has deployed more than one million smart meters deployed across 350,000 square miles.
"Our new investors represent some of the largest and most trusted companies in the utility industry," according to Andy White, president and CEO of Trilliant. "Their combined industry experience, financial strength, and global footprint will provide us with the resources to expand our Smart Grid solutions across North America and to a global marketplace. The strength and caliber of our partners will give current and future customers confidence that they have chosen a long-term market leader."
"Trilliant has demonstrated a proven track record of helping utilities successfully deploy large-scale Smart Grid solutions," according to Dr. Albert Kim, managing director at Investor Growth Capital. "It is clear that Trilliant’s combination of product differentiation and project implementation expertise provides utilities with the most functional, expandable and cost-effective path to a Smart Grid communications network. IGC has been tracking the Smart Grid arena for many years and we have grown increasingly excited recently about the tremendous opportunities. We could not be more enthusiastic to be leading such an influential syndicate of institutional and strategic investors."
“The global Smart Grid market represents a transformation of how utilities and consumers interact with energy supply and demand,” said Stephan Dolezalek, head of the CleanTech Practice at VantagePoint Venture Partners. “This transformation requires a combination of technological leadership, financial strength and significant corporate backing from global players. We believe that this financing and this team of participants clearly puts Trilliant at the forefront of this market and provides utilities with validated solutions and real-world expertise to realize the long-term benefits from a Smart Grid communications network.”
“Today’s utilities are looking for a unique combination of proven deployments, scalable, globally applicable solutions, and product leadership,” added Girish Nadkarni, Managing Director of ABB Technology Ventures. “We invest in companies that have technologies of strategic interest to us and as Trilliant addresses all three issues, it makes them a compelling choice. We look forward to lending our global expertise and presence to them.”
“GE and Trilliant are aligned around a common vision to modernize the power grid to support the energy needs of our 21st century society. Our companies have a shared commitment to bringing enhanced communications and information technology to our power grid. Through real-time knowledge and information sharing, a smarter grid will empower consumers to manage energy usage and costs, optimize the integration of cleaner energy sources, and drive increased energy efficiencies,” according to Luke Clemente, General Manager, Metering and Sensing for GE’s Digital Energy business. “Our investment in Trilliant strengthens our collaborative efforts to bring metering and consumer solutions to a wide variety of Smart Grid opportunities."
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