AAA Tendril creeps around $15m

Tendril creeps around $15m

Tendril Networks, a US smart grid company backed by Germany-based industrial conglomerate Siemens’ corporate venturing unit, has raised $15.3m of a planned $20m round, according to a regulatory filing first seen by news provider BizJournals.

Although the seven investors are undisclosed, Ralf Schnell, chief executive of Siemens Venture Capital, the corporate venturing unit of the eponymous Germany-based industrial conglomerate, said it had reinvested.

Tendril’s board includes George Coelho, the head of Good Energies, a quasi-corporate venturing unit of the Brenninkmeijer family, and, by email, Coelho said: “Yes we did [reinvest] and the company [Tendril] looks good with a large backlog and near-term profitability.”

Adrian Tuck, Tendril chief executive, by email added: “As we see the business unfolding today, we don’t anticipate needing any more [venture] cash to fund operations, but we may still decide to take in more cash to fund additional growth.  

“We see a market ripe for consolidation and several emerging markets that look attractive to Tendril.  We may take on capital to allow us to acquire companies that enhance our offering or give us greater geographic reach.  

“We are not in any hurry however and will take our time to find the right opportunities – we have plenty of opportunity to continue to grow the business organically for the foreseeable future.”

In a December blog post, first noted in the Daily Camera newspaper and then BizJournal, Tuck predicted that 2013 would be the company’s first profitable year.

Last month, Tuck added in his blog: “One of the critical components to our profitability was opening our platform, which now has over 500 registered developers serving the needs of different kinds of customers.

“For us it’s incredibly important to engage with developers, which is why we opened up our APIs and have hosted many hackathons. We’ve seen first-hand how the developer community can drive new revenue and unexpected revenue streams for our technology.”

In June 2011, Siemens Venture Capital backed Tendril, which allowed the company to raise $25.3m of a planned $30m series D round, according to its previous regulatory filing.

 Tendril is backed by US-listed industrial conglomerate General Electric, US venture firms VantagePoint Venture Partners, RRE Ventures, Vista Ventures and Appian Ventures, US pension fund TIAA-CREF and quasi-corporate venturing group Good Energies.

Newswire Reuters said the portfolio company had raised at least $73m from these investors before the latest money. Tendril’s C round closed at $30m in June 2009 and its second round in March 2008 at $12m.

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