Sunverge Secures $11M Capital Raise

Sunverge, the provider of an industry leading Distributed Energy Resource (DER) control and aggregation platform, today announced an $11 million capital raise. The round was led by Ecosystem Integrity Fund with participation from Equinor Energy Ventures and Evergy Ventures. With the funding, the company will continue to expand and evolve its platform to help utilities to operationalize and integrate DERs into core utility operations.

The global energy landscape is undergoing a rapid transition and transformation. The latest FERC report shows generation from renewables outpacing nuclear and traditional generation methods, with additional momentum expected to continue throughout 2022. With the changing market landscape, today's utilities require new mission critical technologies to enable them to integrate and operate DERs as reliable generation and grid assets in order to modernize their distribution grids and replace traditional fossil fuel peak and base generation with distributed clean energy resources.

The Sunverge Energy Platform provides utilities with real-time grid-edge visibility and management capabilities for this increasingly distributed and interconnected web of DERs that include solar, energy storage, EVs and EV chargers in addition to other smart devices such as smart thermostats, water heaters and more.

"With many investor-owned and municipal utilities committing to drastic carbon emissions reduction and targeting 100% carbon-free energy, combined with clean energy consumer choice trends and proliferation of EVs, we are witnessing an accelerated transformation of the industry and transition to clean energy technologies," said Martin Milani, CEO of Sunverge. "This new capital will allow Sunverge to continue ongoing innovation and expand partnerships with utilities to help with this transition and provide the technology required to turn clean DERs into reliable resources that can be integrated into core utility planning and operations. Utilities are no longer contemplating clean distributed energy – they're actively participating and investing in integration of renewables with grid modernization efforts."

"We have been actively looking to invest in this space for a long time and take a highly selective approach to investments. Sunverge stood out to us because of team's deep knowledge of the utility and smart grid space, along with the platform's flexibility to meet the needs of the distribution grids of today and tomorrow. We are proud to back Sunverge and its mission," says Geoff Eisenberg, Partner at Ecosystem Integrity Fund. "We believe the Sunverge platform can play a critical role in transitioning our existing power system from fossil fuel to reliable and clean distributed generation."

"Energy storage and DERs will grow exponentially in North America over the next decade. As a forward-thinking utility, we want to stay on top of these trends to both guide our investments in these technologies as well as deliver new engaging and innovative energy services to our customers," said Chuck Caisely, Chief Customer Officer at Evergy. "Sunverge is uniquely positioned to help utilities embrace and operationalize these exciting new technologies."

"Right now, customers typically own DERs, but utilities are the ideal owners of these assets due to their lower cost of capital," said Gareth Burns, Managing Director at Equinor Energy Ventures. "Sunverge's platform proves the value of the baseload power generated by DERs and will ultimately help utilities convince both public utilities commissions and consumers that assets like solar and energy storage are the right investment for the future of our energy markets."

If you are a utility professional who is interested in learning more about Sunverge's capabilities, please contact info@sunverge.com.

About Sunverge Energy

Sunverge Energy provides the leading open dynamic platform for Virtual Power Plants (VPP), a grid-aware and dynamic power source built from the aggregation of behind-the-meter DERs (distributed energy resources). The Sunverge VPP platform is unique in providing dynamic co-optimization of services on both sides of the meter, helping customers with intelligent management of their own renewable energy generation and utilities with greater flexibility in managing their infrastructure investments, reducing generation costs, increasing system reliability, and meeting their renewable energy goals. Together with the Sunverge Infinity edge controller, the Sunverge VPP platform provides intelligent dynamic near real-time control over decentralized energy resources that is efficient, reliable, and responsive to utilities and their customers. For more information please visit http://www.sunverge.com/

About Ecosystem Integrity Fund

Ecosystem Integrity Fund ("EIF") is a venture capital firm that invests in early growth-stage companies contributing to environmental sustainability, targeting sectors including renewable energy, green chemistry, and resource efficiency. EIF takes a systems-based approach to sustainability investment, and primarily invests in capital-efficient opportunities. EIF seeks out market niches that have not received the investor attention they deserve, resulting in better investment opportunities and greater impact with less capital. For more information, visit www.ecosystemintegrity.com.

About Evergy Ventures

Evergy Ventures – formerly known as GXP Investments – is the non-regulated investment affiliate of Evergy, Inc., the parent company of Kansas City Power & Light Company (KCP&L) and Westar Energy. The firm's investment portfolio includes a wide range of businesses, and is particularly focused on exploring unique opportunities that are aligned with Evergy's core mission to foster energy that moves us forward.

About Equinor Energy Ventures

Equinor Energy Ventures is one of the world's largest corporate venture funds dedicated to investing in attractive and ambitious growth companies in renewable energy. The fund has built a portfolio of investments in companies and funds since it was established in February 2016. The aim of the investments is to help the companies grow, become commercial successes and deliver technologies and business opportunities that can have a relevance to Equinor in the future. For more information, please visit https://www.equinor.com/en/what-we-do/new-energy-solutions/equinor-energy-ventures.html