When Arcadia first opened its doors in 2014, it had one goal: to assist residents power their homes with sustainable energy. It did it by obtaining authorization from clients to view their utility bills and then connecting them with the most appropriate renewable energy sources.
The US-based startup has raised a $200M investment round in order to attain a larger aim. J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s (NYSE: JPM) Sustainable Growth Equity Team led the round with an initial investment. Arcadia‘s data and API platform, Arc, will benefit from the funding by extending data coverage and new product development, allowing companies to monitor, report, and act on their carbon footprint.
The round includes a number of new investors, including J.P. Morgan’s freshly created Sustainable Growth Equity Team, as well as current backers Camber Creek, Tiger Global Management, Wellington Management, Salesforce Ventures, Drawdown Fund, MCJ Collective, and others.
The investment gave the company a $1.5B valuation, making it a “unicorn” in Silicon Valley terminology.
Tech at play
The company is tasked with converting datasets from hundreds of energy utilities into a single digital platform known as Arc. The idea is to make it easier for customers to get more clean-energy services by allowing other companies to utilize its databases — with customers’ approval — to customize their products.
Arcadia has found a method to utilise software to hasten the adoption of renewable energy at scale in an industry that is frequently slowed by tinkering with hardware and convincing hesitant utilities to give it a try.
“The products being built on the Arc platform in just a short amount of time — by large incumbents and new startups — prove that companies have been starved of the tools they need to build innovative energy solutions. Building a platform that works across verticals instead of offering point solutions will unlock exponential growth and impact,” said Kiran Bhatraju, CEO of Arcadia. “Today’s commitment from J.P. Morgan will enable Arc to become the foundational software layer for the zero-carbon economy.”
Business model
Customers can access the data Arcadia has acquired on its platform through their utility logins, but it has generally been difficult to act on. Companies that want to design a rooftop-solar proposal tailored to a home’s actual power use, or an electric vehicle maker that wants to show drivers exactly how much it will cost to charge an EV under their utility’s rate structure, couldn’t get the information.
“Arcadia is a company that makes renewable energy accessible to customers,” Tanya Barnes, co-managing partner of J.P. Morgan’s sustainable growth equity team, said. “It’s also a firm that provides data to corporations so they may develop their own clean-energy services.”
