decarbonize the grid
Singularity Energy raises $4.5 million seed round to decarbonize the grid
Singularity Energy, a SaaS platform that reports on carbon emissions for the electricity grid, has closed a $4.5 million seed round led by Spero Ventures and Energy Impact Partners and joined by existing investors, including Third Sphere and J Ventures.
Singularity, based in Somerville, Massachusetts, provides detailed information about the carbon intensity on the grid at any given moment. It also uses machine learning to predict spikes and troughs in carbon intensity, allowing customers to time their energy use to trim their carbon footprints.
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The company initially focused on helping utility customers reduce their electricity costs by shaving demand or turning to battery storage. “Three years ago, four years ago, the battery wasn’t really cheap enough to cover all the costs, right?” founder and CEO Wenbo Shi said. “So we spent a lot of time modeling and coming up with new optimization algorithms to really help the customer make the economics work for battery storage.”
Along the way, Harvard University, an early customer, posed a question. “Harvard is very sustainability-driven. During one of the conversations, they brought up carbon. ‘Can you actually consider carbon as a signal?’” he recalled. “We did a bunch of analysis that demonstrated that, if you only optimize for cost, you will actually increase your emissions instead of reducing emissions for battery storage specifically.”
That conversation set Singularity on a new path, one that also put it in contact with a new set of customers — utilities.
Working with utilities gave Singularity new insight into the grid, Shi said, and new avenues for the business. “The vision for Singularity is we want to become like a carbon engine, connecting the supply side with the demand side so that we’re the carbon intelligence provider,” he said. “But in order to get the carbon intelligence — in order to get the best data analytics and intelligence — there is no way for you to achieve that objective without working with the supply side.”
decarbonize the grid
