Companies across industries are increasingly committed to reducing their carbon emissions, not only to combat climate change but also to reduce costs and mitigate the risks associated with volatile wholesale power markets. But with a lack of dedicated tools and infrastructure, much of the process remains confined to spreadsheets that are ill-suited to making robust, data-driven decisions. Furthermore, the expertise and resources required to procure clean power are prohibitive and out of reach of all but the biggest organisations.
San Francisco-headquartered Verse is a company that helps organisations unlock the benefits of clean power. The company has now secured a $5.75 million seed funding round. Led by Coatue (that invested in WeaveGrid and Our Next Energy), the round also saw participation from Twine Ventures, MCJ Collective, Firstminute Capital, Collaborative Fund, Future Positive, and Incite.org, among others.
The investment will enable Verse to help organisations procure, manage, and report on carbon-free energy assets faster and more cost-effectively than now.
“Reshaping the emission intensity of our electricity system is a key step in getting to net zero. At the same time, for organizations that have outlined net zero goals, there isn’t an easy or transparent way to procure electricity from renewable sources,” said Jaimin Rangwalla, Senior Managing Director at Coatue. “Verse has built a proprietary software platform to manage this process from end-to-end, which we believe is primed to redefine how businesses procure and manage clean energy. We are excited by the potential for Verse’s technology to support corporate sustainability and emissions reduction goals.”
“We’re incredibly grateful to Coatue for leading this round, and to all our investors for supporting our efforts to help companies reduce their carbon emissions,” said Verse CEO Seyed Madaeni. “This funding enables us to further our mission of unlocking the benefits of clean power for organizations everywhere. We are also very excited to have signed our first commercial contracts, including with an industry leader like Climeworks. Clean power procurement will be a strategic imperative for every sector, and we look forward to helping Climeworks and other companies reduce the cost and complexity of buying and managing clean power.”
Partnership with Climeworks
Besides the investment, Verse has signed a customer agreement with Climeworks, a pioneering company offering high-quality carbon removal services via direct air capture (DAC) technology. This partnership will allow the company to design and procure future-proofed, risk-optimised portfolios of clean energy assets to power their CO2 removal operations.
“Widespread access to clean power is a fundamental need for our industry to deliver high-quality carbon removal at gigaton scale,” said Climeworks COO Douglas Chan. “As a global leader spearheading DAC technology, Climeworks looks forward to partnering with Verse for a new, easier approach to the process of buying and managing clean power.”
Transition to clean energy with generative AI
Verse was founded by Seyed Madaeni and Matt Penfold, who previously held leadership roles at Fluence. Earlier this month, the company launched Aria, an enterprise platform for buying and managing clean power, to address the pain points in switching to clean energy.
Leveraging generative AI, Aria will allow organisations to define their clean power goals, design and procure a portfolio of clean energy assets, manage those assets, and report on portfolio performance. By empowering companies to reduce costs, de-risk energy procurement, and expedite transactions, Aria will help accelerate and scale organisational adoption of clean energy. With Aria, companies can meet their financial and emissions-reduction targets.
