Blue Pillar, the only Internet of Things (IoT) provider to connect all Energy Things™, today announced $10 million in financing from new investors GXP Investments and Elevate Ventures alongside existing investors EnerTech Capital, Allos Ventures, Arsenal Venture Partners, and Claremont Creek Ventures.
2016 was a groundbreaking year for Blue Pillar. The Blue Pillar Aurora platform was installed at large energy providers and commercial facilities such as Walmart, Target, and Comcast as well as at higher education campuses, including University of Hawaii and Texas A&M University. As a result, the company won the Grid Edge-Energy Management award from Platts Global Energy. This awards program honors only the leaders and innovators from the energy industry. Blue Pillar was one of 18 finalists chosen from 170 nominations representing 30 countries. In April, Blue Pillar was one of 20 companies to receive Greentech Media's Grid Edge award - an honor bestowed upon only the most disruptive companies responsible for positively impacting the U.S. electricity industry. These awards and new customers further validated Blue Pillar's increasingly important role in bringing forward grid edge transformation.
'Blue Pillar is leading a historic energy industry transformation by connecting distributed energy resources (DERs) at the grid edge on behalf of energy providers and their commercial customers contributing to an impressive 400 percent growth in their business over the last five years,' said Bill Kingsley of EnerTech Capital. 'Through their innovative approach, existing and new energy assets such as solar, storage and fuel cells are linked into a digitally enabled architecture, enabling control and two-way power flows. We believe Blue Pillar is well positioned to compete in an Energy IoT market reshaping how customers consume electricity.'
According to Navigant Research, 'a new landscape is emerging in which a more sophisticated two-way grid of networked DERs will pave the way for an Energy Cloud ecosystem valued at $1.3 trillion in new annual industry revenue by 2030.' Surging demand for energy networks that provide connectivity, control, and remote monitoring is driving Blue Pillar's business.
'Blue Pillar's ability to network DERs and other energy systems into an IoT technology platform that is open to third party software applications will allow electricity providers to offer new, innovative energy services to their largest commercial and industrial customers,' said Dennis Odell, Senior Director at GXP Investments. 'We are excited to be joining this team.'
'The vision of Blue Pillar has always relied upon what could be achieved with ubiquitous access to behind-the-meter energy information and secure automated control over DERs and systems,' said Tom Willie, CEO of Blue Pillar. 'For us, this latest investment, expansion to new customers and prestigious industry awards, represent validation of the vision. We look forward to working with our investors and customers to rapidly bring much needed disruption to the energy industry.'
About Blue Pillar
Blue Pillar connects the Energy Things that power our world. The only IoT solution to unite all Energy Things onto a single platform, Blue Pillar unleashes the power of real-time data to strengthen critical infrastructure and accelerate business. Blue Pillar's Aurora® is automated through a template-driven process where security is built-in from sensor to cloud. With Blue Pillar, companies have unprecedented insight into their energy needs to become more efficient and have peace of mind that when the grid goes down, their business will continue forward.