ConnectDER, a Philadelphia-based energy innovation company that’s working to bring its technology to market to charge electric vehicles at home and connect solar panels to the grid, closed $35 million in Series D financing. BlackRock and Temasek’s Decarbonization Partners led the financing round, which commits the fund to accelerating the global pace of decarbonization.
ConnectDER was founded in 2011 as a pioneering company that made innovative solutions to help households include solar panels and EV chargers without requiring expensive upgrades in their electrical systems. Its technology enables a smooth transition to the grid so homes can source power whenever generated by solar when there’s no available energy from this source. This innovation is part of the major issues of adopting clean energy sources, particularly to the 60 million U.S. homes which do not have a capacity to have solar energy or electrical vehicles without expensive infrastructure updates.
Market expansion and increased production of ConnectDER to develop a new line of products shall be the key use of the funding for Series D. The company’s CEO is positive on prospects of the company – new products like an exciting in-house developed “IslandDER.” It is called the next generation of MSA that can be seamlessly tied into utility grids but at times may be disconnected “islanded” due to the homes continuing from stored solar energy, or from battery and even sometimes EVs.
According to Steklac, this innovation allows backup power to households in an economical way, enhancing household resilience while promoting sustainable energy uptake.
“This Series D funding affords us the opportunity to reach wider markets and deliver highly innovative solutions, such as IslandDER, to customers in unmatched resilience and cost efficiency,” said Steklac.
ConnectDER’s system has already shown an order of magnitude reduction in the cost of installing solar and EV. In addition to interconnection fees from utilities, elimination of the cost of upgrading service panels gives ConnectDER as a stronger, more scalable value in the home electrification business. To date, ConnectDER has more than 25,000 operational adapters operating in 22 states but will only have nationwide availability in a few years more.
It is also backing the strategic objectives of Decarbonization Partners, a venture launched in 2022 by BlackRock and Temasek to invest in late-stage companies that drive the economy towards net-zero by 2050. According to Dr. Meghan Sharp, Global Head and Chief Investment Officer at Decarbonization Partners, “ConnectDER’s elegant solution is accelerating affordable home electrification in North America by working through the barriers to the adoption of clean energy.”.
According to Sharp, “We are delighted to support ConnectDER as it expands operations and changes the way the world accesses renewable energy solutions.”.
New investor MassMutual Ventures joined repeat backers Avista Development, Clean Energy Ventures, Energy Innovation Capital, Evergy Ventures, LG Technology Ventures, and Zoma Capital in funding the company. The sum of these investments speaks to sector-wide confidence that ConnectDER will be an agent for change in renewable energy. The vision of ConnectDER seems to align with larger decarbonization trends and innovative customer-centric solutions to fill the gap between existing infrastructure and sustainability adoption. Affordability, ease of use, and resilience all seem to factor well for the focus of the company; it can be considered one of the important players that changes the landscape of energy usage in the United States. The renewable energy and the EVs have asked for more over the past. Thus, ConnectDER made its solutions scalable paths to electrification and decarbonization. Having raised that capital, the company scaled up operations by introducing the IslandDER technology, allowing clean energy to millions of households while furthering its path to become a leader in changing the world’s path toward a more sustainable future.