Power Assure, a US-based provider of data centre software, has raised $1.5m in venture funding from Switzerland-based industrial conglomerate ABB’s corporate venturing division.
ABB set up its Technology Ventures division in October and invested $20m in Trilliant, a US-based provider of communication networks for utilities, two months ago.
Girish Nadkarni, managing director of ABB Technology Ventures, said: "As data centre expansion and new builds [that can cost $100m] continue to grow steadily, energy management software that optimizes capacity, service levels, and consumption is increasingly important to the IT organizations and enterprises running them."
ABB has joined venture capital firms Good Energies, Point Judith Capital, and Draper Fisher Jurvetson in the investment consortium after the three groups committed $11.25m to Power Assure in July.
Power Assure had previously raised $2m and a $5m grant from the US Department of Energy.
Brad Wurtz, Power Assure’s executive president, said: "By adding ABB to our investment syndicate we are partnering with one of the world’s leading producers of automation software as well as data centre power equipment.
"ABB’s engineering expertise and global customer base will help us bring our technology to the world’s largest data centres, no matter where they are based."
Power Assure partners include computer companies Dell, IBM, Raritan, and VMware.