Utilidata Raises $60 Million to Scale Distributed AI Across Energy Infrastructure
Utilidata, a leader in edge AI technology, announced today that it has secured $60.3 million in Series C funding. The round was led by Renown Capital Partners–an investment firm focused on growth-stage technology companies helping to secure an efficient, affordable, and reliable energy system–with participation from Quanta, NVIDIA, and existing investor Keyframe Capital. Citigroup acted as sole placement agent to Utilidata on the transaction. This funding will enable Utilidata to rapidly scale Karman, its distributed AI platform developed in collaboration with NVIDIA over the last four years. Built on a custom NVIDIA module based on the NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano edge AI platform, Karman can be embedded in any device connected to the energy system.
“With this round of financing, Utilidata is positioned to deliver a major breakthrough in how the world manages power across the entire energy ecosystem,” said James McIntyre, Co-Founder, CIO & Managing Partner at Renown Capital Partners. “By bringing artificial intelligence to the edge of the grid, Utilidata’s Karman platform will help deliver unprecedented efficiency, resilience, and security to energy infrastructure across the world.”
Rapid growth in data center power demand alone is creating new constraints for grid operators and hyperscalers. By 2030, it is estimated that data center power demand will increase by 160 percent. This growth combined with the global clean energy transition is creating increased complexity on the grid, requiring new and advanced solutions, like edge AI. By enabling high power compute and AI capabilities to be embedded directly into grid infrastructure and data centers, Karman unlocks grid capacity, increases reliability, and reduces carbon emissions.
Utilidata’s Karman platform is now available for purchase directly from Advantech, the global leader in IoT intelligent systems and embedded platform. This will make it easy for any hardware partners to embed Karman into their equipment. Hubbell Incorporated is already working with Utilidata to embed Karman into smart meters for electric utilities.
Utilidata’s strategic partnerships are designed to support utilities through every phase of implementing edge AI at scale. The company announced last year afirst-of-its-kind collaboration with Deloitte to support clients in navigating the modern power grid and has now partnered with Quanta Services to support the deployment of AI-enabled infrastructure at scale.
“Quanta’s expertise in electric infrastructure deployment positions us to help Utilidata scale AI across the grid,” said Andrew Schwaitzberg, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Quanta Services. “We look forward to showcasing the power of edge AI at the Quanta Advanced Training Center, and working with our customers and partners to modernize infrastructure. By enabling AI onto the physical grid, we can continue to support infrastructure that is more reliable and resilient as our customers’ needs grow.”
These investments, which will help scale Karman, come as several megatrends converge, including the rise of data centers and growing power demand. Quanta Services brings deep expertise in deploying power grid infrastructure and will play a critical role in ensuring that grid modernization keeps pace with the growing demands. NVIDIA’s AI innovations will help advance the transformative potential of Karman at the grid edge.
"Electricity has gone from being abundant and predictable to scarce and increasingly unpredictable,” said Josh Brumberger, CEO of Utilidata. “That paradigm shift requires fundamentally new technology and deeper industry collaboration. We’re bringing together a powerful coalition of partners who are committed to scaling AI across the grid to build a modern and dynamic energy system.”
“By embedding AI and accelerated computing at the grid’s edge, Utilidata is unlocking critical insights and enabling utilities and industries to make smarter, more informed decisions,” said John Rapaport, CIO of Keyframe Capital.“These new capabilities, which don’t exist today, will allow the energy industry to do more with existing infrastructure – tapping into valuable capacity on the grid at a time when load is growing rapidly for the first time in decades.
Utilidata | https://utilidata.com/