Some early stage cleantech funding news out of Spain today: Optimitive, a firm that designs software to make industrial processes cleaner and more efficient, announced that it has raised 1.4 million Euros ($1.9 million) in its Series A round. The funding comes by way of Luxembourg-based GGM Venture Capital’s Capital High Growth IT fund, established in February of 2012 with an initial investment of 30 million Euros ($40.5 million).
Optimitive is a May, 2013 graduate of the Houston TX-based Surge Accelerator, who participated in the funding round.
Based near Bilbao, Spain, and founded in 2008 as a spinoff of the Spanish applied research center Tecnalia, Optimitive has worked on projects with companies including SAP, Intel, Microsoft, Volvo, Nissan and Infineon. The company’s software requires no new investment—just a simple PC and an Ethernet connection—and can be used by large industrial companies to reduce energy or raw input costs and lower CO2 emissions for furnaces, water treatment plants, paper machines, power plants, industrial cooling systems, compressors, and more. According to the company’s web site, Optimitive technology reduces energy usage by 3 to 10 percent
The new capital will be used primarily to increase the company’s sales and marketing efforts to expand across regions and sectors.
Guillermo G. Morales, Chairman of GGM Capital, commented: “Energy efficiency is going through the most significant disruption for a generation. Businesses are increasingly looking to transform and eliminate the causes of energy wastage. The obstacles of outdated processes mean this is a growing market opportunity. We are delighted to invest in making the vision of Optimitive Group real and help thousands of companies around the world become energy efficient.”
Energy efficiency continues to dominate cleantech venture capital deals this year, both in number of deals and funds raised, through Q3 2013. It was the most represented venture investment category in Cleantech Group’s 2013 Global Cleantech 100 company list announced last month.
Notable industrial process-focused efficiency startups selected to Cleantech Group’s list include:
– Scotland-based Heliex Power, founded in 2009, produces steam screw expanders that aids in the recovery of energy from industrial processes that can be used to generate electricity. It received funding by the UK Carbon Trust, BP and Novusmodus.
– California-based Alphabet Energy, founded in 2009 as a spin-out from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, is a developer of modular thermoelectric products that transforms wasted heat into electrical power. It raised $16 million in Series B funding from Encana in March.
– California-based OSIsoft, founded in 1980, makes software used to capture, process, analyze, and store data relating to manufacturing processes, was named to Cleantech Group’s 2012 Global Cleantech 100 List. It received $135 million from Technology Crossover Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in Jan 2011, and another private equity funding of $3.25 million in March, 2012.
For CleanTechIQ’s comprehensive energy efficiency venture funding round-up through September 2013, click here