Switzerland-based power and automation technology group ABB has made its first corporate venturing deal since relaunching the unit by investing $20m in Trilliant, a US-based provider of communication networks for utilities
The total raised by Trilliant was $106m in equity and debt from four venture capital firms, two strategic investors and a credit provider.
Investor Growth Capital, the venture capital arm of Sweden-listed investment company Investor founded by the Wallenberg family, led the round.
ABB invested $20m in Trilliant through its ABB Technology Ventures corporate venturing unit set up in October.
Investor and ABB had previously provided €300m ($388m) each to their short-lived €1bn B-Business Partners corporate venturing fund started in March 2000 to invest in e-commerce companies, with other investors in the fund representing some of the world’s biggest companies in AstraZeneca, Atlas Copco, Electrolux, Saab, Sandvik, StoraEnso and WM-data.
Girish Nadkarni, managing director of ABB Technology Ventures, which is chaired by Bruce Koch, confirmed it was its first deal but it had six others in negotiations. He added in a statement: "Today’s utilities are looking for a unique combination of proven deployments, scalable, globally applicable solutions, and product leadership.
"We invest in companies that have technologies of strategic interest to us and Trilliant addresses all three issues."
US-listed conglomerate General Electric was the other new strategic investor but invested less than ABB and earlier in the week launched a $200m corporate venturing fund to back companies developing so-called smart grid technologies.
Luke Clemente, general manager of metering and sensing at GE’s Digital Energy division, said: "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."
The other VCs were: VantagePoint Venture Partners, and return investors MissionPoint Capital Partners and Zouk Ventures. Deutsche Bank advised Trilliant on the latest financing.
Trilliant has been in business for 22 years and has more than 200 utility customers including Hydro One, the single-largest smart grid implementation in North America, and merged with its investor and services partner, OZZ, in 2007. The company first took venture funding after the merger in 2008 when it raised $40m from MissionPoint and UK-based Zouk.