Aquilon Energy Services, the US-based developer of a cloud-based platform for energy settlements, received $19m in series B financing on Wednesday from strategic investors including renewable power producer Invenergy.
Financial services firm Citi, investment bank Goldman Sachs’ Principal Strategic Investments subsidiary and financial services provider Macquarie Group also took part in the round, and all four have agreed to use Aquilon’s Energy Settlement Network (ESN) software.
ESN is a platform that energy industry stakeholders can use to access, manage and automatically settle transactions of large amounts of power, oil and natural gas. Users can study their transactions and settle any disputes collaboratively with each other.
Ravi Ramachandran, managing director of Citi’s electronic business for global commodities, said: “Managing energy settlement data is becoming more challenging, and the ESN enables commodity operations professionals to significantly improve how they work.
“We are excited to have a key stake in a company operating at the forefront of innovation in the energy industry.”
Ramachandran is on Aquilon’s board of directors, as is Amy Francetic, Invenergy’s senior vice-president of new ventures and corporate affairs, and Matt Alfieri, vice-president at Goldman Sachs Principal Strategic Investments.
Aquilon had closed $13.9m in equity financing in July 2016, according to a regulatory filing, but as the final close of that round was expected to be $19.9m, it is not clear whether or not the filing refers to the series B round it has just closed.