California and Bengaluru-based Bidgely, which provides artificial intelligence (AI)-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions to electricity distribution companies, has announced that it has closed a $26 Mn Series C venture round. The new funds will enable Bidgely to provide tailored solutions that support the country’s biggest utility needs: electricity theft prevention, grid stability and electric vehicle (EV) accommodation.
The round was led by Moore Strategic Ventures, Accurant International, Future Energy Ventures, Georgian, and Constellation Technology Ventures. In India, Bidgely competes with Gurugram-based startup Zenatix acquired by Hero Electronix, Jaipur-based Gram Power, Ahmedabad-based Ecolibrium, Gurugram-based LoudCell and LogicLadder, among others.
Founded in 2010 by Abhay Gupta and Vivek Garud, Bidgely (meaning electricity) has built smart metres that help customers to see what appliances are turned on, how much energy they are using, and how much it is costing to the overall electricity bill. Its energy monitor tracks individual appliances and their energy consumption providing an analytical report on energy consumption to its customers.
The startup also works with electricity distribution companies (discoms) to provide AI-based services to modernise their grid operations. Without disclosing the name, Bidgely said it has worked with a leading private electricity discom in India, where it demonstrated the ability to detect non-technical losses through disaggregated smart metre data.
With this round, the startup has raised $77 Mn in funding to date. Now, with the fresh funds, the startup is targeting multiple use cases. Some include:
- AI-based short-term load forecasting
- Analytics-based customer indexing
- Asset predictive maintenance to solve multiple challenges for discoms such as theft detection and grid stabilisation
While the corporate sector dominates the electricity sector with the government, Reliance and Tata being the hotshots, cleantech startups are looking to innovate and solve problems in the segment.
The Indian power sector is undergoing a significant change with increased technology usage, and the rising economic growth continues to drive electricity demand in India. Meanwhile, India’s maturing cleantech ecosystem has been leading the fight against climate change, but there’s a lot more to be done in the long run — energy saving being a key change.
Source: inc42.com
