Bringing change to the utilities industry may not be sexy, but it’s big business—judging by the sizable new funding round for a local energy analytics software firm. Lexington, Mass.-based FirstFuel Software on Wednesday announced closing a $23 million Series C round to continue helping to transform utility markets for the better.
FirstFuel offers software-as-a-service that enables utilities to provide individualized information to businesses that they power (for the initiated, FirstFuel is serving both regulated and deregulated utilities).
"Providers are asking us to help them understand each and every customer's energy usage and needs," said Swapnil Shah, CEO/co-founder of FirstFuel, in a news release.
The software’s benefits include providing analytics on energy usage in commercial buildings—which let utilities identify potential energy savings without setting foot on site.
FirstFuel commercially launched its software in late 2012, and since then has analyzed data for more than 1 million meters in North America and Europe. One of its products has found energy savings equivalent to taking “two coal-fired power plants offline,” FirstFuel said in the release.
The company’s new funding will be targeted toward expanding sales and marketing efforts, growing in Europe and investing in the next generation of its products. FirstFuel currently has 100 employees and expects to hire another 25 to 30 people in 2015.
The new round was led by Next World Capital and included all prior investors, among them Battery Ventures, Rockport Capital and Nth Power.
FirstFuel has now raised $45 million in total funding since its founding in 2010.
