Scientific Conservation (SCI), a US-based building energy management firm, has raised more than $19m in from US-listed companies Intel and General Electric (GE) and venture capital firm Triangle Peak Partners.
In return for selling some equity, SCI has struck a global strategic alliance with semiconductor company Intel to improve energy use in large campuses, optimize data centre cooling, and collaborate on technologies to improve the energy efficiency of information technology-intensive workspaces.
Lorie Wigle, general manager of Intel’s Eco-Technology Program Office, said: "The combination of SCI’s cloud-based artificial intelligence algorithms, and Intel’s expertise in energy measurement and efficiency technologies, is a great example of smart energy solutions that are being brought to market through the Intel Open Energy Initiative."
SCI’s SCIwatch tool services the $5bn commercial building market and has more than 20 million square feet of building space under management and is on track to exceed 100 million square feet by year’s end in five countries.
The Intel alliance is separate to the more than-$19m raised in SCI’s series B round from GE Energy Financial Services and Triangle Peak.
In addition to GE’s investment as part of its GE Ecomagination Challenge, GE Capital Real Estate is set to deploy SCI’s energy analytics platform in several buildings in the US, Canada and the UK. Ricardo Angel, a senior vice-president at GE Energy Financial Services and who will be an observer on SCI’s board, said: "GE chose Scientific Conservation as a winner of its Ecomagination Challenge because of its value to customers, lead on its competition, strong management, customer pipeline, Software-as-a-Service business model and collaboration opportunities with GE Capital Real Estate."
SCI said it had now raised more than $28m along with existing venture capital investors, DFJ, DFJ Growth Fund and the Westly Group.